


Circle of Life.

by Thousandsmiles



Series: Alpha-In-Training [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Enforcer!Theo, Ensemble Cast, Gen, Group chat, Lacrosse, Liam is a good alpha in training, Liam is the alpha in training, Lowkey anchor! Theo, Lowkey anchor!Liam, Pack Dynamics, Plot, Post-Season/Series 06, Post-Season/Series Finale, Scott McCall is a Good Alpha, Scott and the others are at college, Texting, Various Mythologies, anger management issues, eichen house, no thium just bro-otp, racist OC, werewolves obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-01-09 23:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12286827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thousandsmiles/pseuds/Thousandsmiles
Summary: Liam knows your senior year is supposed to be exciting but he kinda hoped his would be the great-grades-co-captain-an-amazing-lacrosse-season-freak-out-about-college kind of exciting, not a crazy-things-are-running-around-Beacon-Hills-killing-people kind of exciting.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm back with another one in this series so buckle up! I hope you all enjoy it! 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.

“Liam!” said his stepdad in surprise and pleasure. “What are you doing here?”

“I brought dinner,” said Liam holding up a box.

“Dinner? Really?” Dr. Geyer said taking the box. Then he paused and said playfully, “What are you bribing me for?”

Liam laughed and stuck his hands in his pockets.. “Nothing. We were buying dinner for Ms. McCall so I thought I’d bring some for you too.”

“We?”

“Mason and I,” said Liam. “He went to track down Ms. McCall.”

“Ahh,” said his dad. “Well thank you. I will eat this delicious dinner when I get my break.”

“Okay,” said Liam smiling at him, “Well I gotta go home and do my homework. There’s this geography project I want to get started on.”

“Alright,” said Dr. Geyer. “I will see you tomorrow morning.” He clapped a hand on Liam’s shoulder and added. “Providing I get home before you leave.”

Liam nodded and spun away, heading out to the entrance to wait for Mason to get back. He was just about to pull out his phone to call Mason a few minutes later when his best friends hands landed on his shoulders.

“Hey man, said Mason, “Took longer than I expected to track her down.”

“It’s okay,” said Liam. “Are you done with your geography?”

“Halfway through,” said Mason. “But dang that thing is hard. Did you start?”

“Starting tonight,” said Liam as they began to walk towards the car.

“Well call me if you need help,” said Mason.

“Will do,” said Liam. “Since I’ll definitely, probably end up needing some help.”

Mason opened his mouth to reply but he didn’t get to say anything else. A car careened into the parking lot, stopping almost in front of them. A man, smeared with blood, dived out the driver's side and darted past them to the hospital.

“Help!” he screamed. “Help! Somebody help me!”

When nurses approached him he tugged at them. “Not me!!” he said frantically. “The woman!! A woman!! In the car!!”

Liam and Mason instinctively looked to the car and Liam caught a scent of blood. They looked at each other and dived for the car. Liam opened the back door and recoiled a bit. Behind him Mason gave a low groan as he caught sight of the inside.

It was like a horror movie. Blood was smeared everywhere. It dripped from the back seat where a woman lay, moving weakly. Her stomach was...well it really wasn’t there. Her abdomen had burst open, leaving the flaps of skin hanging outwards, intestines half spilling out. Her chest moved slowly as she struggled to breath.

Liam swallowed as he sort of froze trying to figure out what to do even while knowing there wasn’t anything he could do.

“Liam,” said Mason sounding sick. His voice broke Liam out of his frozen state though and Liam ran around to the other side of the car to where the woman’s head was and opened the door. He kneeled down on the ground and placed a hand on her cheek.

“It's okay,” he said, even though he knew it wasn’t true. “It’s okay.”

Tears were running out from under her closed lids. Liam took a deep breath and pulled in the pain. He hissed but gritted his teeth at the sensation. And then people were there clamoring around the car. Someone pulled him away and took his place.

When he oriented himself it was to see a nurse fitting a mask over the woman’s face. His father was there leaning into the car, shouting instructions to the other nurses and orderlies but it was all too late. Liam could hear her heart pump once, twice, the slow exhale of her breath and then she was gone.

He stared blankly at the car as all the medical personnel around the car slumped in defeat. And then his father was calling the T.O.D.

“Liam?” It was Mason. Liam looked at Mason who looked as shaky as he felt. Mason huffed out a shaky breath and dropped his head onto Liam’s shoulder for a moment while Liam gripped his arm in return.

“Are you okay, he asked a moment later.

“I don’t know,” said Liam. “What happened?”

“I, I don’t know,” said Mason. “I have literally never seen anything like that.”

“Me either,” said Liam.

“Are you two okay?” Dr. Geyer’s voice interrupted them.

“Yeah,” said Mason. “Yeah I think so.”

“What were you two doing here?” he asked.

“We were just leaving,” said Liam. “Then the car came and...we went to help I guess.”

Dr. Geyer sighed and gave them a little smile. “I’m proud of you two for that but next time, you should probably wait for the professionals. We weren’t too far away in this case.”

“Yeah,” Liam swallowed and nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. We probably got in the way.”

“It was just instinct,” Mason cut in. “Sorry if we got in the way though.”

“That’s okay,” said Dr. Geyer, “And you didn’t. But honestly? I would have spared you boys the sight. Why don’t you two head on home? You okay to drive?”

“Yeah,” said Mason. “And if I don’t feel like it, I’ll pull over and call Corey or Theo.”

“Alright,” said Dr. Geyer. “I’ve got to go back in now,” he said.

Liam nodded and said, “Yeah okay. I’ll see you home.” Mason gave a little wave and then they headed to the car. As they were driving out, Liam saw the sheet-covered gurney being pushed inside the hospital.

* * *

 

“What happened?” said Theo when Liam walked into the room. He took another breath, frowned and sat up. “Whose blood is that?”

Liam frowned and then looked down at his hands. Blood stained his fingertips where he’d laid them on the woman’s cheek. He stared at it blankly for a moment and then  headed to the bathroom to wash his hands.

“Liam?!” said Theo following him.

“It was from a woman at the hospital,” said Liam. “A guy drove up in a car when we were about to leave. He said there was a woman hurt in his car. So me and Mason went over.”

“And?”

“There was a woman,” said Laim. “It...hell it looked like something out of Alien. Her stomach was burst open, but..a lot. There was blood everywhere. I tried to take her pain. I didn’t get to take much. They pushed me away to out an oxygen mask over her face. She didn’t make it.”

“Okay,” said Theo slowly. “I’m no doctor but I’m fairly certain that exploding stomachs isn’t a common ailment.”

“Obviously,” said Liam.

“Do you think it might have anything preternatural about it?” said Theo. Liam shrugged.

“I don’t know,” said Liam. “Maybe, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions either.”

Theo raised an eyebrow.

“Look Mason said they’d do an autopsy because clearly it was pretty weird what happened. Melissa can get the report or my dad might even tell me seeing as I’d been there. The sheriff would question the guy and we’d find out from him too. For all we know it’s a totally human, really sadistic killer.”

“Alright,” said Theo nodding but his eyes were far away. He curled back up in Liam’s arm chair and plucked distractedly at his guitar.

Liam on the other hand pulled out his phone.

 

Liam to EVERYONE in BH: Heads up on woman with exploding stomach. No idea if it’s anything.

JP: Sheriff interviewing driver right now. Details later.

CA: Exploding?

MM: Autopsy ordered. Details later. And honestly, yes, it looked like her stomach exploded outwards.

Liam: Thanks, JP and MM. Keep us updated.

 

With that done, Liam tried to get started on his geography homework.

* * *

 

“Hey,” said Mason, as he met Liam by his locker, “Anything?”

Liam shook his head. “Parrish said that they’re looking for the spot where the driver said he found the woman. The Sheriff called Theo in today, see if he could pick up any strange scents.”

“What about the autopsy?” Corey asked.

“Melissa said they’re doing it today. We’ll find out later I guess.”

“So what now?” asked Mason.

“Go to school, I guess,” said Liam. “Well we have early practice this morning.”

“Are you coming?” Corey asked Mason.

“Sure,” said Mason. “Don’t I always?”

* * *

 

Liam shook his head as he got up from where he’d been tackled.

“Hey, you okay?” asked Nolan. Nolan was one of those people for whom Deaton’s memory concoction hadn’t really worked at all. The memories were a little fogged he said,but he remembered everything with ease.

“Yeah,” said Liam. “I’m guess I’m just distracted.”

“Well you should probably undistract yourself,” said Nolan. “Or coach is going to yell at both of us.”

“Right,” said Liam. He shook his head again to clear it and focused on the game. The drills started up again and Liam rushed forward with Nolan as they attempted to stop the guy from making it to the goal. Nolan tackled first, missing but setting up Liam to knock the guy’s stick from his hand. Liam struck the stick and it fell out causing both groans and cheers to rise up from the players and observers.

The next player who came up was Diaz though. He rushed at both Liam and Nolan and although they made a concerted effort to get to him, he managed to slip past them when he maneuvered Nolan to trip up Liam. The two of them fell to the ground in a heap and Diaz made to score but then stopped before shooting the ball.

Corey in goal, frowned at him and then when Diaz started backing away turned to look behind him. His eyes widened at what he saw and he let out a little yelp. He too backed away while Liam from his vantage point of the ground, saw the snake very clearly.

He and Nolan stared at each other and then rapidly detangled themselves and stood up, backing away with Corey and Diaz.

The rest of the players knowing something was up came up to see what it was and then also backed away as the very big snake continued it’s way across the playing field.

“What’s going on here?!” yelled Coach. He stomped over to them and then saw the snake and did a double take. “Okay everyone just back away and let it pass,” he said.

“Coach,” said Liam.

“What?” said Finstock.

Liam pointed to where the field met the forest and to where what looked like hundreds of snakes were crawling out onto the playing field.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all those who are reading!! Hope you all enjoy this one!!

Sheriff Stilinski raised his eyebrows as he approached the taped off area.

“This is it?” he asked Parrish, who was standing just outside the caution tape.

“Looks like it,” said Parrish. “It matches up to where the driver he said he found her. And there’s a whole lot of blood.”

“What was she doing out of the road here anyway?” said the Sheriff.

“I don’t know. There's no way she was walking. It's too far out from anywhere. The killer must have dumped her here.”

“Are forensics done?” asked the Sheriff.

“Yeah,” said Parrish. “Want me to clear the area for a bit?”

“Yeah thanks.”

When the area was cleared Sheriff Stilinski turned towards his squad car and nodded. THe door of the car opened and Theo stepped out. He sauntered over to the crime scene and raised his eyebrows.

“That is a lot of blood,” he commented. He didn’t looked disturbed by it at all.

“Is there anything off about it?” asked the Sheriff.

“I’d have to get closer,” said Theo. “The blood’s covering up a lot of stuff.”

The Sheriff lifted the tape and Theo raised an eyebrow but ducked under it.

“Watch where you walk,” the Sheriff cautioned him. Theo waved to show he had heard and went about inspecting the area just off the road where the woman had been found. The Sheriff watched as he crouched down over pools of dried blood and inhaled, twisting his head this way and that.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” he said after a moment. “Whatever happened to her. It happened here. The killer didn’t rip her open somewhere else and then left her here.”

“Why do you say so?” asked the Sheriff.

“For one, the amount of blood. For another, the type of blood. There’s a lot of arterial blood spray here. That kinda goes out first. She’d have bled a lot less here if she’d been hurt elsewhere and there wouldn’t be this kind of spray. Plus this places reeks of terror and pain.”

“So you’re saying, that someone may have just killed her on the side of the road, just like that?” asked the Sheriff.

“If there was a someone,” Raeken told them. “I’m getting her scent but not anyone else's. Not anyone that was here long enough to do the murder anyway.”

The Sheriff let out a sigh and rubbed at his forehead. He watched as Theo moved away from the crime scene a little heading towards the wooded area and then frowned as the boy stopped and cocked his head. Then Raeken was pushing through the brush. He and Parrish shared a look and then darted after Theo.

They caught  up with him a few moments later and he jerked his head to a spot on the ground. It wasn’t much. It was a large slimy sort of smear with what looked like blood and some other unidentifiable green substance.

“I smelt something reptilian,” said Theo. “This, whatever it was, smelt like that too but it’s not the same.”

“What do you mean?” asked Parrish.

“I mean,” said Theo, “That it’s possible that there was two people here.”

“But what happened here?” asked the Sheriff.

“Maybe they had a fight,” said Parrish. “Cause that’s blood.”

“Or maybe maybe whatever it was changed it’s shape and this is a by product of that,” Theo said idly.

“Another shapechanger?” asked the Sheriff. Theo shrugged.

“How should I know?”

The Sheriff closed his eyes briefly and then said, “Parrish, call back forensics here. Let’s see if that blood and whatever else is making up that smear, can tell us anything.” He turned to Theo. “Let’s get you back to your job.”

* * *

 

“O-kay,” said Mason from where he was peering out the window at the lacrosse field. “This is officially creepy.”

“Yeah,” said Corey. “What are the odds that we have exploding stomach lady and then snakes?”

“With our luck, not high,” said Liam. “The last time something like this happened it was the anuk-ite. But then it was wolves and rats.”

“Do you think it’s gotten out?” asked Mason. Liam shook his head.

“I already texted Deaton. He called Eichen and they say nothing in it’s cell changed.”

Mason and Corey both let out sighs of relief.

“So, imma going to start going through the bestiary, just in case,” said Mason. “Because by now I think we should start paying attention to the animals in Beacon Hills.”

Liam opened his mouth and then closed it and nodded.

“I didn’t even know we had this much snakes,” said Corey watching the poor animal control people attempt to round up all the snakes and place them in carriers.

“Me either,” Liam admitted.

“Where were they going though?” asked Corey.

“What?” said Mason.

“The snakes,” said Corey. “They were all pretty much heading in the same direction. Where were they going?”

Liam and Mason shared a glance.

“We...should probably find that out,” said Mason.

“Yeah,” sighed Liam.

 

Liam to EVERYONE in BH: Snake infestation at BHHS.

JP: You’re not alone. Snake infestation everywhere. A couple places have called in already.

CA: I’m tracking the calls and their movements.

Liam: MH wants to know where they’re going.

CA: So do I.

* * *

 

Evening finds them all gathered at the animal clinic.

“Did you find out where the snakes were going?” Mason asks Argent.

“They were heading out,” said Argent.

“Out of where?” asks Mason frowning.

“Out of Beacon Hills,” replies Argent.

Mason’s eyebrows sky up and he and Liam shares a look.

“That’s not ominous at all,” Theo drawls.

“Is there any natural reason for a sudden migration of snakes?” Sheriff Stilinski asked Deaton, looking like he really hoped there was.

“Snakes do have migrational patterns,” said Deaton, “But that doesn’t happen in Beacon Hills.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” said the Sheriff.

“Theo you said you scented something reptilian at the crime scene,” Jordan said. “Could it have been a snake?”

Liam looked at Theo not having heard this yet.Theo frowned slightly as he tried to remember and then said, “It could have been but, I don’t think so.”

“There was something reptilian at the crime scene?” Mason asked. Parrish nodded and explained.

“Did they find out what the smear was?” asked Corey.

“No, the lab hasn’t gotten back to us,” said the Sheriff. “But doc, I brought you some of it after the tech guys got through.” He pulled out a tiny bottle with the strange goo inside. Deaton took it and held it to the light.

“Well the autopsy results,” said Melissa, “were already pretty horrifying without knowing everything else you all just said.”

“What does it say?” asked Liam. beside him everyone else was just as interested, the official report not having made it to the Sheriff station yet.

“The doctor who did the autopsy reported that it wasn’t any external wounds inflicted to tear her open like that. Whatever happened, did happen from the inside out. But that’s not the worse part. The worse part is that it looks like something clawed it’s way out of her but it didn’t come from her stomach. It came from her womb.”

There was silence as they all took that in. Sheriff Stilinski broke the silence first.

“Hold up, you’re saying she was pregnant?”

“Yes,” said Melissa.

“And whatever she was pregnant with, ripped itself out of her?”

“Looks that way.”

“I need a new job,” said Stilinski.

“Okay,” said Corey looking sick, “I did not need to hear that.” He wrapped his arms around his lower abdomen.

“That’s your bladder,” Theo deadpanned, “You don’t have a womb.”

“That’s entirely not the point,” Corey told him.

“Uh,” said Liam. “So do we have a killer? Or just a murderous baby-thing on the loose?”

“There were two scents at the crime scene though,” said Theo. “Both kinda reptilian.”

“Father and child?” asked Argent.

“Maybe,” said Theo. “Maybe all that slime was some kind of birthing fluid.”

“Okay,” said Liam. “That’s just disgusting.”

“What do we do now though?” asked Mason. “I mean, is it going to happen again? Whatever this thing was, it got what it wanted right? Maybe it just left after.”

“If it left then the snakes wouldn't have bothered leaving,” said Parrish.

“Right,” said Mason, sighing.

“You think it wanted a baby?” asked Melissa.

“Let’s not attempt to find out the desires of preternatural killers,” said Theo. “Because it usually doesn't make sense.”

“You would know,” muttered Mason but it was more fond than biting. Theo rolled his eyes at him.

“So plan of action?” asked Melissa.

“I don’t think we have one,” said Liam. “Unless waiting for the lab results to come back is one.”

“What about a list of pregnant people?” asked the Sheriff. “Can we get that somewhere?”

“You can get the pregnancy clinic list,” said Melissa. “But it wouldn’t cover everyone.”

“Get it to me,” said the Sheriff.

“Deaton can you find out if there was anything strange about the snakes that came out?” Liam asked.

“I can try,” said Deaton.  “It certainly should be looked at. There's a chance that there is a perfectly normal explanation for it.”

“Thanks,” said Liam. “We’ll keep each other updated I guess.”

“Yeah,” said Sheriff Stilinski looking like he really wished he could get an average ordinary serial killer for once. Liam kinda sympathized. He wished he could get an average ordinary semester for once too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you all think!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liam encounters some home problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all like this one!

They are halfway home when Liam’s phone chimes. He opens up the message and then frowns.

“What is it?” asked Theo, not doubt scenting his confusion.

“My mom just asked me if we wanted to spend the night by Mason,” Liam replied in a confused tone.

Theo gave him a look that said he too was suspicious. Liam dialed his mom and waited for her to pick up.

“You know,” said his mom, “the purpose of the text was to avoid calls.”

“I figured. What’s going on?” asked Liam.

His mom sighed. “My father broke his leg and he turned up this evening. He’s going to be spending the next few months with us while it heals.”

“What!” Liam hissed. 

“Calm down,” said his mom. “You’re dad’s on work tonight so I thought you would rather stay at Mason’s just for tonight so nobody explodes on the first day.”

“How can he just turn up like that?!” said Liam.

“Liam,” sighed his mom. The tone of her voice caused him to wilt. 

He struggled but finally said,“I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“Liam, he’s not going to hurt me,” said his mom patiently. “He’s not going to hurt us.”

“He does hurt you!” said Liam. “You and dad,”

“And we can handle ourselves,” said his mom. “Because we’re a big boy and girl. As charming as it is that you want to protect us Liam and I do appreciate it, we can take care of ourselves.”

“I know that,” said Liam feeling a little sheepish, “But I can’t leave you alone mom. I just can’t. I’m coming home.”

His mom sighed. “Alright. Alright.”

“Bye. Love you,” Liam said and hung up.

There was silence in the truck for a while and then Theo said. “You wanna tell me what that’s about?”

“My grandfather is coming to stay,” said Liam;

“Got that yeah,” said Theo. “What’s the story behind why you’re so pissed off?”

“He’s racist,” announced Liam. 

Theo blinked. “He’s racist?”

“Yes!” said Liam. “He hates black people.”

Theo blinked a couple times again. “So….your step-dad…”

“Yeah, he hates him. And Mason,” Liam crosses his arms tightly. “He just tries to turn everything into my dad’s fault. I mean it. It’s ridiculous actually....Seriously he doesn't listen to music that have been sung by black artists.”

“Okay what?” said Theo half-laughing. “There are people like that?”

“Apparently,” said Liam, exasperated.

“So...why is your mom letting him stay with you all?” asked Theo.

Liam sighed and some of the anger drained from him. “Because he’s her dad? Because, when she lost her sister in a car accident, and her mom was so out of it, her dad was the one that was sort of there for her and helped her pull through? She...She’s too good I guess. But she says for all his faults, she owes him a lot and she loves him still I guess.” 

Theo shakes his head and then says, “Her choice I guess.”

“Yeah,” said Liam. “But it still sucks.”

* * *

 

 

When they get home, Liam hops out of the truck and heads for the front door. He’s halfway there when he realises that Theo hasn’t followed. He’s still by his truck staring up at the house with an unreadable expression on his face.

Liam frowns at him and then remembers that Theo has yet to use the front door. But if he comes through by Liam’s window, Liam’s grandfather will no doubt have some questions. 

“Come on,” says Liam, “It’s okay. Really.” Theo’s eyes flick to Liam and his face is almost blank now but after a moment he starts after Liam. 

“Mom, we’re home!!” Liam calls as soon as he’s inside.

“Good,”says his mother bustling in to meet them in the hall. “You two go and shower. Theo I told my father that we moved your stuff from the guest room to Liam’s room, since I didn’t think you wouldn’t want any questions on that score considering you haven’t even told me and Liam’s dad, anything.”

“Thanks,” says Theo, lips twitching into a smile.

“My grandfather is very nosey,” added Liam. “Seriously, he’ll try to pry into everything and he doesn’t take any hints to stop.” Theo snorted, amused. 

“Well Liam you can shower in my room, while Theo uses your shower so you both can be down for dinner in time,” his mom added.

* * *

 

Liam and Theo meet at the top of the stairs, both dressed similarly in loose pants, tee-shirts and awful-looking but incredibly comfortable push-toe slippers that they usually padded around the house in. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but try not to kill him,” said Liam.

“Isn’t that my line?” said Theo rasing an eyebrow. 

Liam frowned at him and then said, “I thought I’d say it just in case.”

“That bad huh?” said Theo. His eyes turned a little distant as if he was already contemplating ways to get rid of Liam’s grand-dad. Liam, although the utterly disliked his grandfather, was a little alarmed at the look on the chimera’s face. 

“No seriously, don’t kill him!” he hissed. Theo’s eyes blinked back into focus and he gave Liam a wicked smile.

“Of course not.”

Liam didn’t exactly feel better about his grandfather’s chances for survival but something about the fact that Theo was threatening the man made him feel calmer. 

“Boys, you ready?” called up his mom.

“Yeah!” Liam shouted down and then taking a deep breath, headed down the stairs, Theo following closely at his back. 

* * *

 

When they got to the dining room, it was to find that dinner had already been laid out and his grandfather, sitting in his father’s place at the head of the table. HIs broken leg was stretched out to one side of the table and a pair of crutches was leaned up against the other side.

“Well isn’t it the little timebomb!” his grandfather said when he saw him. “Come give your old grandpa George a kiss!”

“I’m not ten anymore!” Liam said but he dragged his feet forward and dropped a fast kiss onto his grandfather's head, evading his arms and darting back as fast as he could.

“And you must be Liam’s friend  right?”  Grandpa George turned his attention to Theo. He looked him up and down and said to Liam’s mom, “Macy, if you finally got tired of that pile of black skin you call a husband you didn’t need to bring in a teenager to  fill those needs of yours.”

There was utter silence in the kitchen for a moment, with Liam’s mom staring wide-eyed while Liam choked in rage and Theo blinked in surprise. 

Before Liam could dart forward and tear into his grandfather though, Theo laughed.

“I’m flattered that you think I’m good enough for your daughter,” he said to Grandpa George, “but I make a habit of not getting involved with friend's parents. Messy you know. Besides, I know Macy has much higher standards than me.” He smiled winningly.

Grampa George blinked at him and then guffawed with laughter. “Eh you’re quick one.”

Liam’s mom recovered enough to say, “Don’t tease the boy so dad.”

Seeing that Liam was still on the verge of beating the living daylights out of him Grandpa George said, “Oh sit down boy and eat your mother's dinner.”

It was probably not the best idea to say something like that to him since Liam was a beta werewolf who was seriously pissed off. Having someone who wasn’t his alpha, second or enforcer telling him to do something wasn’t going over very well. 

But Theo tugged on his arm. “If you don’t eat I’m taking your share.”

Liam glared at him and Theo tilted his head and raised an eyebrow much like he had when he was taunting him at the zoo. 

‘Play along’ was the silent message. A quick flick of Theo’s eyes to his mom added, ‘We doing this for someone else.’ It was much like giving Scott and the others time at the armoury. Liam let out a breath and stretched his fingers. 

He could do this. He could do this for his mom. 

* * *

  
  


Mason was skyping with Corey as they attempted to study some of their history when his phone began to ring. 

“Hold on,” said Mason. He dug around looking for his phone and finally found it buried under one of his pillows. 

He looked at the caller ID and then said to Corey, “Deaton.”

“Answer it,” said Corey. 

Mason hit the answer button. “Hello?”

“Mason,” said Deaton in his calm voice. 

“Hey. What happened?”

“I was examining the goo that the Sheriff gave me and I came across something strange things in it.”

“Strange things like what?” asked Mason. From the screen Corey made a confused gesture and Mason hastily put the phone on speaker.

“Scales,” said Deaton. “I haven’t identified what type although they look remarkably like snake scales but that’s not what I called about.”

“What did you call about?”

“I found some very small hairs,” said Deaton, “Fine, almost underdeveloped, but there were too many of them for it to be a contamination of sorts. Not to mention they are a similar colour to the scales. I thought it might help you in your searching.”

“Yeah,” said Mason, mind already churning. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” said Deaton and hung up.

“Hair?” said Corey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you all think!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy this one! Thanks for all the lovely comments and kudos!!

Liam entered his room in a fuming fit. The rest of dinner hadn’t been much better. He took a deep breath, another and then another.

Just before his fist destroyed a section of his wall, Theo caught his arm and flipped him over. The roar that would have escaped was blocked when Theo’s knee dropped down onto his throat, effectively suffocating Liam.

Liam struggled, eyes gold but Theo caught both arms, holding them away from himself.

“Calm down!” he hissesd.

Liam didn’t feel like complying. He twisted again but Theo simply dropped more weight onto his throat and after a few long seconds Liam tapped out on his leg. Theo lifted off of him and Liam sat up and hand going to his throat as he gasped for air, eyes still gold.

Theo shook his head at him, giving him a disgusted look, the kind a parent would to a child that was misbehaving.

“Come on,” he said, still annoyed. “We’re going for a run.”

“We are?” rasped Liam.

“Unless you want to tear out your grandfather’s throat, yes we are.” Theo went over to the window, opening it and raised an eyebrow at Liam.

Liam half-growled at him but went over to the window. Theo hopped out, Liam followed him down and then they running.

Liam lost track of how long they’d been running for. He only stopped when Theo finally slowed down. The chimera bent over, bracing his hands on his knees, taking in deep breaths. Liam copied him a few moment later and went he finally straightened up, he felt better, his head was clearer.

Theo tilted his head from side to side, popping knots out of his neck, flexing his hands as he did so. Liam suddenly realized that wasn’t the only one who’d been ready to kill someone tonight. He looked down the street suddenly realizing just how far they’d run.

“Maybe we should have taken the truck,” he said.

Theo huffed with laughter. “Yeah but running over a random pedestrian isn’t as much fun as running over a ghost rider.”

Liam laughed before he could stop himself. “If we ran over a random pedestrian,” he replied, “My dad would kill us for giving him work.”

Theo flashed one of his rare wide smiles and they both turned to head back home when the wind blew.

They froze and then turned to look at each other.

“Is that…?” began Liam.

“Blood,” Theo finished.

* * *

 

The body was half-buried in the hedge of a house with a for sale sign in the yard. Liam watched the corpse if the woman whose entire front was covered in blood, feeling like his dinner was trying to come up again. He felt sick. Theo on the other hand was carefully moving around the perimeter, trying to catch any scents that might be helpful.

Liam shivered, watched the branch-covered corpse and swallowed again. The blood didn't bother him, it was the death. He really, really wished people would stop dying.

“Hey,” It was Theo’s voice. “You done with your pity party?”

Liam glared at him. “Is it bad that I don't like people dying?”

“No, it’s bad if you just stand there and don’t do anything,” Theo snarked back.

“If I walk over there, chances are I’ll mucK up the crime scene,” said Liam.

“Probably,” Theo agreed. “Except that’s not the reason that you’re not helping.”

Liam’s fist clenched but Theo didn’t give him time to react, getting up in his face.

“Look I understand this is hard for you but you can’t be fragile about this. Okay? You live in Beacon Hills, you protect this place, blood and death is something that you’re going to have to get used to.”

“No!” snapped Liam. “I don’t have to get used to it! You can get used to it all you want but the day I get used to it is probably the day I’ll check myself into Eichen!” Theo recoiled from  him, face hardening and then going blank.

“Fine,” he snapped. “But chickening out at the crime scene doesn’t help anyone.”

“I know that!” Liam snapped. “Just give me a moment!”

“You don’t have a moment,” Theo told him sarcastically, “Scents fade.”

“Fine!” Liam yelled back and stalked forward, doing his best to catch any strange scent going to and from the body. Theo stalked off in the opposite direction from him.

It was probably fro the best that the Sheriff turned up two minutes later.

* * *

 

While forensics swarmed over the crime scene Liam and Theo stood with the Sheriff giving their statements. When they were done the Sheriff said, “Okay, anything you two can tell me off the record?”

“Nothing reptilian,” said Theo. “I didn’t smell anything like that this time.”

“And no wired smear,” Liam said. “We both checked.”

“Less blood this time actually,” said Theo frowning. “Less terror too. Like it happened fast. Well faster.”

The sheriff blinked and rubbed a hand over his face. “So it’s possible that this exploding stomach lady may have been done by someone else?”

“Maybe,” said Theo. “We’d have to get the M.E.’s report. See if there’s any vital differences.”

The Sheriff looked up and then started forward. Liam and Theo turned to look and saw that the body had been extracted from the hedge.

“Wait,”said the Sheriff. He pulled on gloves and pulled back the sheet. He stared for a long moment. Theo and Liam both came up behind him and caught a glimpse of the body. Then the Sheriff covered it back and let them carry it away.

“That wound wasn’t by her womb,” said Theo. “It was completely different from the first body.”

“There’s another killer,” concluded Liam.

* * *

 

“Okay seriously,” said Mason at school. “Two dead bodies? By different killers?”

"Our life sucks," murmurs Corey.

“That’s what it looks like,” Liam said. “Although this one might actually be a normal killer.”

“When have we ever had a normal killer?” asked Corey.

“Yeah the last time we thought we had a normal killer it turned out to be Mr. Douglas,” Mason reminded them.

“Yeah and he stuck a lot of cords in me and tried to bring a preternatural army into our world,” Corey added.

“Well obviously we’ll keep an eye on it,” said Liam irritatedly, stuffing books into his locker.

There was silence and Mason and Corey obviously shared a look. Mason apparently lost because he was the one who asked hesitantly.

“Hey, you okay?”

“I’m fine!” said Liam and slammed his locker closed. “I’ll see you guys in class.” He stalked off leaving his two friends staring worriedly after him.

* * *

 

Mason to Theo: Do you know what’s wrong with Liam?

Theo to Mason: Why don’t you ask him?

* * *

 

“Ahh,” said Mason to Corey as he sat next to him in biology. “I think he and Theo had a fight.”

“We didn’t have a fight,” said Liam, who was sitting one row up from them.

“So what was it? A mild argument?”

Liam glared at Mason while Corey appeared to ignore both of them. Before their conversation could continue though Mrs. Finch walked into class.

* * *

 

Parrish walked into Sheriff Stilinski’s office and handed him a file.

“The ME’s report on the body came in,” he said.

“That was fast,” said the Sheriff.

“I put a rush order on it,” said PArrish.

“Thank you,” said the Sheriff.

Parrish turned to leave but paused. He cocked his head as a strange feeling assaulted him. A rush of heat, something sliding, gliding past. A roar of flame.

He jerked back and snapped into the present.

“You okay deputy?” Sheriff Stilinski asked.

Parrish blinked. “Yeah. I think.”

“What happened?”

“I think, I sensed something?”

“What?” asked the Sheriff.

Parrish turned to look at him. “Fire,” he said.

* * *

 

When Liam showed up at the hospital after school, per Melissa’s request, Theo was already there, lounging at the side entrance. Mason and Corey who’d also come, took one look at the both of them and then Mason said, “We’ll go on ahead.”

They brushed past Theo and made their way inside. Theo simply raised his eyebrows and then said, “Let’s not keep the lady waiting.”

He turned to go in but Liam reached out and caught his wrist.

“What?!” Theo bit out.

“I’m sorry,” Liam said and saw the shock in Theo’s eyes for a moment.

“He’s sorry,” Theo mocked back at him gently.

“I shouldn’t have implied what I did,” Liam said,not letting Theo tug his hand away. “I was angry and I just took it out on the people around me. Like I always do because I’m an idiot and a dick.”

“You still meant it,” said Theo, not quite looking at him.

But Liam shook his head. “You’ve changed. If you didn't you wouldn’t be standing here and I wouldn’t have let you into my house. What I said wasn’t fair and it wasn’t true. I was just lashing out.”

Theo sighed and tugged at his hand. Liam let him go but the chimera didn’t move.

“Look Liam I grew up with the dread Doctors. I have seen a lot of blood and body parts and more cut open bodies than you can imagine.”

“I know,” said Liam. “Just because you’re accustomed to something doesn’t mean you’re okay with it. It’d be like being okay with being tackled at lacrosse. No matter how much you’re accustomed to it, no one likes to be tackled.”

There was a pause and then Theo’s lips twitched. “Something like that,” he agreed and the anger and hurt between them melted away. “We really shouldn't keep Melissa waiting though,” he added.

“She has a stun baton and knows how to use it,” agreed Liam. He was rewarded with another smile from Theo,small but it reached all the way to his eyes.

* * *

 

“So,” said Melissa as she pulled out the body from it’s morgue unit. “This body was significantly different.”

“How?” asked Mason.

“For one she wasn’t pregnant,” Melissa told them. “For another what happened, happened from outside in.”

“So nothing tried to crawl out of her,” said Corey.

“No,” said Melissa. “But someone did take her liver.”

“Hang on what?” said Liam.

“She’s missing her liver,” said Melissa. “This could have been a black market thing except that the cuts weren't surgical enough. Could be a trophy though.”

“But the last time something went around taking body parts, it’s was Hauptman and the penial glands,” Theo spoke up.

“Exactly,” said Melissa. “That’s why I thought I’d show you the body.” She flipped back the sheet and they all sort of recoiled.

The woman’s chest was gaping open. Even washed from the blood, it was a terrible sight, ribs sticking out here and there, like they’d been pulled and broken because they were a bother to the killer’s work, like he’d needed more space to work his hands in. The skin was pulled back more neatly though, carefully peeled away, something almost clinical about it.  

Liam was snapped out of his inspection from the body by Theo’s heartbeat picking up. He was staring at the woman’s chest but his eyes were somewhere else.

“Theo?” he said, remembering how he’d looked when they’d walked into the hospital to hide from the ghost riders.

Theo snapped back into focus and his heart rate slowed.

“Did they use a knife?” If Theo’s voice was a little horse, no one called him out on it.

“They might have used something,” agreed Melissa. “The way the skin was cut was too neat. Maybe the knife was a bit blunt. The initial cut was pretty clean too. The ME said that some sort of tool was used but he couldn’t tell what. Not yet anyway.”

“Great,” said Mason.

Corey on the other hand put a hand on the table and went invisible. After a moment he repapered, forehead creased.

“Can I get a forceps?” he asked Melissa.

“What is it?” asked Liam.

“I’m not sure,” he said. He took the forceps Melissa returned with and went back invisible.

They all watched as the flesh of the body moved around as Corey poked around it and then something was clearly extracted and Corey returned visible.

Held in the In the forceps was a sliver of something.

Melissa held out a petri dish and Corey dropped it in. She took it over to the light and the rest of them crowd around her.

“What is it?” asked Liam.

“Looks  like….a piece of stone,” said Mason.

“Wow,” said Theo dryly. “So she got some stone in the wound. Must have happened when she was struggling.”

“Stone that glows?” asked Corey.

“What?” said Theo.

“It kinda glows when I go invisible and it doesn’t look like this either,” Corey told them. “It looks like obsidian.”

He held out a hand and Theo took it. Liam rested a hand on his shoulder, Melissa took his other hand and Mason grabbed the other shoulder.

Corey reached out with the hand Melissa hand and touched a finger to the bottom of the petri dish. They all went invisible and Liam could see what Corey meant.

Light looked ghostly green in Corey’s world but so did the stone. It glowed a bit but it also was different from when they viewed it normally. It was black as opposed to gray and the edges where it had chipped away were much sharper, the structure more crystalline.

Corey made them reappear and they all blinked at the small sliver of rock in the petri dish.

“Well,” said Melissa.

“Why can’t we have a normal killer for once?” Liam asked rhetorically. His grades were going to suck.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you all think!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Glad to get out this chapter!! I hope you all enjoy it! The action should pick up again in the next chapter!

 

“What do you mean, ’fire’? “ asked Mason.

Parrish shrugged. “Fire. Like a fire. Something with fire was there.”

“Like another hellhound?” asked Corey.

“No,” said Parrish instantly. “I know what it's like to sense another hellhound. This wasn’t it. It wasn’t hell fire, nothing so powerful. But there was fire all the same.” He half closed his eyes as he tried to remember. “There was something else too. Like it was just sliding out my reach? Undulating?”

“Undulating?” said mason frowning.

“Like a snake?” said Corey.

Parrish and Mason both blinked at him. “Maybe,” said Parrish.

“Deaton found snake scales in the goo,” said Mason, “Or something like it.”

“And hair,” added Corey.

“Hair?” said Parrish. “What kind of hair?”

“No clue,” said Mason. “Anything from the lab?”

“Not yet,” said Parrish, “The reports should come in this evening though.”

“Text me the details,” said Mason.

“Will do,” said Parrish.

* * *

 

Chris Argent prowled along the forest reserve. He’d gone looking to see if there’d been anything normal in the snake's natural habitat that might have driven them from the preserve. So far he hadn't found anything that might have driven out the snakes. He walked some more and then paused as he caught sight of blood on some leaves. He settled his gun more securely on his shoulder and moved forward. He came past the blood and found himself on a trail, the kind that resulted from a hunt. Hoof marks were almost obscured by something  that left a long round, heavy trail. Blood touched trees and hung from leaves, splattered from where the wounded deer had run.

Argent followed the trail, careful not to damage it until he finally came to the mostly-eaten corpse of the deer. He sank down on his haunches to examine the body. The deer had been torn into by something with very powerful teeth. Large powerful teeth. If he didn’t know better he might have said werewolf, but the teeth were longer, sharper, if the tears it made in the flesh were any indicator. Interestingly, the bones in the deer’s body were savagely broken. Argent swept his eyes over the killing ground and read what happened there. Something had wrapped around the deer, squeezing it until it’s bones had popped out of joint and broken before it had started eating.

“So that's why they left,” Argent murmured softly. “Whatever this thing is, it’s like a snake. They were threatened by it being in their territory.”

He eyed the tracks left by the creature mentally calculating just how big it was. The answer that came up was ‘too big’. Too big to be natural and too big for something that they had to fight.

He stood up, about to leave the deer when something about the corpse caught his eye. He walked around the body and eyed the black and oozing liquid that had seeped out a little. He frowned at it. It was too dark to internal or organ blood. This was something else.

He reached out, then thought better and found a stick. He levered the body up and cocked his head to get a good look at the underside.

More black substance oozed out of a hole. He lowered the body back and then sniffed at the stick. He wrinkled his nose and brought it back for a more careful smell. He was no expert but he was pretty sure that it was poisonous.

He looked around, found a couple of unfortunate worms and beetles and rubbed the black substance on them using the stick. The results weren’t long in coming, leaving a pile of dead worms and unfortunate insects on the forest floor.

“Huh,” said Chris.

* * *

 

While Mason and Corey had gone to talk to Parrish, Liam and Theo headed home for the night. They parked their respective vehicles and then Liam just stood and stared up at the house.

“My dad’s home tonight,” he said.

“Is that your way of telling me don’t kill your grandfather again? Because I got it the first time,” Theo said.

“No,” said Liam, still staring intently at the house. “That’s my way of saying punch me if I’m going to kill him.”

“But I just got my nails done,” Theo said in a mock-mournful voice.

Liam glared at him and stalked into the house.

“I’m home!” he announced and slammed the door behind him. It opened a moment later as Theo stepped in.

“Bad day?” his dad called from the living room.

“Could have been better,” Liam mumbled.

“I had a great day!” Theo said cheerfully.

“Evening Theo,” Dr. Geyer called.

“Evening,” Theo replied while Liam stomped up the stairs to go shower because the morgue scent was clinging to him.

Theo’s had started up the stairs when Dr. Geyer called him.

“Theo can I speak to you a moment?”

Liam froze on the top stair and turned to look at Theo who had paused, one foot on the bottom stair. Then Theo shrugged and turned back, not looking at Liam although the stiffness of his back told Liam he was worried. Liam continued up the stairs but stopped when he was hidden in the hallway and trained his ears to the conversation below.

* * *

 

“Hey,” Theo said, stepping into the living-room, with his most charming smile on his face. “What is it?”

Dr. Geyer patted the couch next to him and Theo sat, leaning back, looking comfortable and at ease.

“I,” began Dr. Geyer, “would like you to do me a favour.”

Theo raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Dr. Geyer sighed. “You’ve met Grandpa George.”

“I have,” said Theo, suddenly realizing where this was going.

“I’m a doctor, I’ve dealt with difficult people my entire career,” continued Dr. Geyer, “I can handle him. But Liam, well…”

“Liam gets ticked off,” said Theo, half-smiling.

“I don’t blame him,” said Dr. Geyer. “Anybody would. But I’d kinda like to keep him from juvie. I’m told it’s one of those good parenting goals I should strive for.”

“It is,” Theo said with only half-feigned seriousness. “You want me to keep an eye on him.”

“You do seem to have a talent for handling his temper,” Dr. Geyer admitted.

Theo let out a small huff of laughter. “I just help him convince himself he wants to do the opposite. Since he usually does want to the do the opposite anyway.”

“Well if you can convince  him that he doesn’t want to kill his grandfather that’d be great,” Dr. Geyer said. “Do you have any idea what it’d be like if I have to treat George in the E.R. ?”

Theo snorted at the thought. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”

“I wouldn’t want to be in my shoes,” said Dr. Geyer humorously.

“Sure,” said Theo in response to the original request. “Liam in juvie doesn’t work out for my benefit anyway.” He gave a wide smirk-grin and then swept from the room.

* * *

 

Liam glared at Theo when he came up the stairs.

“Ears burning?” Theo teased.

“I can control myself!” he hissed.

“I know you can,” said Theo. “I just said that to make him feel better. Believe it or not my life’s goal isn’t to make sure you keep your hands clean.” Then he was gone, brushing past Liam to their room. Liam took a moment to breathe, hold his temper in check before he suddenly realized that Theo had beaten him to the bathroom.

“Theo! Get out! It’s my shower!”

A very amused laugh was the only reply he got.

* * *

 

Deaton was just locking up when a knock sounded on his door. He looked up to see Chris Argent.

“Mr. Argent. How may I help you?”

“Got a moment?” Argent asked.

“Sure,” said Deaton.

Chris walked over and placed a small jar with some of the black ooze in it.

“I was out in the preserve today and found the remnants of a deer. It had been eaten by a predator that’s not from around here and had a puncture wound that was oozing this poison. Do you think you can identify it.”

Deaton’s eyebrows raised. “I can try but poisons and venom really aren’t my specialty.”

“Well, that’s all I can ask,” said Chris.

Deaton smiled.

* * *

 

“Well, well, well,” said Grandpa George when he came down the stairs, and saw Dr. Geyer at the dinner table. “Looks like somebody actually came home. I’m surprised. Thought you blacks always run away from your families.”

Before Liam could retaliate though Dr. Geyer replied calmly, “Spent all day thinking that one up George?”

Grandpa George blinked and Theo choked with laughter.

“Come and sit down dad,” said Liam’s mother. “And for your information, my husband works very hard to provide for his family which is why he isn’t at home as much as wants to be.”

She grinned at Dr. Geyer and when Grandpa George opened his mouth to say something, Liam blurted out:

“I have  a lacrosse match this Friday.”

“Do you?” said his mother quickly taking the opportunity to turn the conversation around. “Against who?”

“Mary Tree’s Private,” said Liam.

“Someone actually named a school that?” Theo said.

“That’s a new team right?” said Dr. Geyer.

“Yeah,” said Liam. “They’ve now started their lacrosse program.”

“So you’ll be playing against a bunch of babies?” asked Grandpa George.

“Greenies,” said Liam, “But they could be really good. I guess we’ll see.”

“Hmm,” said his mom. “I think I’m free that night. Do you mind if I come and watch?”

“Sure,” said Liam, surprised. His mom hadn’t always been very happy about his lacrosse career seeing as how much trouble he got into while playing. Even Dr. Geyer gave her a surprised look.

“Well it’s your last lacrosse season here, I should start seeing some of your games right?”

“Unless you rather wait until I’m in the big leagues,” Liam joked.

“I’ll be too old,” she said dramatically. “Honey are you on shift then?”

“Yeah,” said Dr. Geyer. He professionally ignored Grandpa George’s snort.

“Yeah I bet you’re on shift. Probably took some overtime too to hump them black nurses,” the old man said nastily.

“Dad!” snapped Macy but her shout was overtaken by the loud scape of Liam’s chair as he almost flew over the table.

Liam found himself being checked in a particularly brutal fashion as Theo grabbed his arm and yanked with chimera strength. Liam found himself almost on the floor but before he could regain his footing Theo was dragging him out the room, marching down the corridor before he tossed Liam into the laundry room and shut the door.

Liam rounded on him, eyes glowing, voice half growling as he demanded to be let out.

“Your shoulder’s out of joint,” Theo said calmly. “Your dad’s gonna notice if you walk back in like that.”

Liam paused because he hadn’t noticed his shoulder was dislocated. Then he spun, jammed his hand into one of the shelves and twisted hard. The shoulder slid back with a sickening pop and then the healing kicked in.

“Let me go,” he said, low and dangerous, his eyes no longer glowing, but his claws were digging to his palms.

Theo rolled his eyes. “What are you going to do now? Beat him to a pulp? I’d applaud it but then you mightn't know when to stop.”

Liam tried to push past him.  The roar of anger was not as blind  as before, it was of the more righteously angry stage, but he was still very pissed.

Theo pushed back at him. “You can’t go out there like that.”

“Get the hell out of my way!”

“What three things cannot long be hidden,” Theo said with a put upon sigh.

“The hell!” Liam hissed and tried to push past him again.

“Say it!” Theo snapped, finally getting angry.

Liam reeled back but knew that if he appeared like this his parents wouldn’t be pleased with him complicating the situation.

“Thesunthemoonthetruth!” he rattled off.

“Look I understand how you feel,” Theo said calmly, “But if you kill him, we’ll have to hide the body.Say it.”

“Thesunthemoonthetruth!”

“Unless you’d rather go to jail but your dad asked me to keep you out of juvie. Say it.”

“Thesunthemoonthe...truth.”

“And if we did decide to kill him then we’d have to do it some other time because now would be too suspicious. Say it.”

“The sun….the moon….the moon...the truth,” Liam gritted out.

“And we’d definitely need shovels and I think a chainsaw really wouldn’t go awry because then we could just dump the pieces in a river or something and it’d get eaten. Say it.”

“The sun, “ Liam breathed, a little calmer. “The moon, the truth.”

“But if we kill him we’d have to lie to your mom and that, that could get messy, “Theo continued in this thoughtful voice, “Say it.”

“The sun,” Liam took a deep breath, “The moon,” another breath, “The truth.”

“Again,” Theo said and Liam complied.

“The sun,”he breathed in and the sound of his own heartbeat slowed, “The moon….the truth.” His heartbeat settled into a rhythm that didn’t hum of rage. He looked up at Theo. “Throw the pieces in a river?”

Theo shrugged. “It’s bad for forensics too.” Liam blinked.

“I don’t actually want to know.”

Theo gave him one of his wicked half-grins, “Then don’t kill him.”

“I’ll think about it,” Liam grumbled but he wasn’t going to kill Grandpa George (at least not right now) and Theo knew it.

He ran a hand through his hair. “What do we do now?”

“Well we could go back and finish dinner but that mightn't be the smartest thing to do.”

“So I’m just supposed to walk out and leave them?”

Theo sighed. “Your parents are adults Liam. No matter what your grandfather thinks, he doesn’t have any power here. The moment they decided to throw him out is the minute he’s gone. They’re better people than he is which is why he isn't gone yet. But they can actually take care of themselves. But if you’re going to throw a fuss, why don’t you go over to Mason and I’ll stay here?”

Liam thought about it but shook his head. “I have to stay. I have to protect them.”

“Delegation,” Theo said, “It’s a word. Look it up. It’s something all good leaders have to learn. Especially in  a situation when they’re compromised.”

Liam almost snapped at him but the sense of what he was saying penetrated. If he could leave the others in charge of helping him solve murders, he could trust them to watch over his parents.

“Okay,” he said, “Okay.”

He charged forward to the door and Theo let him go. He stomped out through the back door, got in his car and drove over to Mason’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The comment button is singing your name!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some action. Sort of....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy!!

When Theo returned to the dining room however Grandpa George was nowhere in sight. He raised an eyebrow and Liam’s mom said, “My father is finishing up dinner in his room.”

“You sent him to his room?” Theo said, gleefully, eyes sparkling. He supposed he was over selling it, it  _ was  _ a bit too gleeful but Macy Geyer looked pleased, (which was what he’d been aiming for) and Dr. Geyer was looking very proud.  

“Please tell me you got it on camera!” Theo said to Dr. Geyer. Dr. Geyer shook his head mournfully. 

“I don’t bring my phone with me to dinner.”

“Aww, damn it!” said Theo with feeling. Liam’s mom giggled. 

“It wasn’t all spectacular as that,” she said. Dr. Geyer shook his head to contradict her statement. She playfully slapped her husband on the arm and asked: “He’s gone by Mason?”

“Yeah,” said Theo. 

“Good,” she sighed. “He’ll feel better.”

“Damn son, that was some reflexes,” Dr. Geyer said. “I was pretty sure Liam was going to land at least one punch.”

Theo shrugged.“I’ve gotten accustomed to predicting his mood swings and predicting that he might want to punch Grandpa George wasn’t very difficult,” he added.

“I suppose not,” sighed Dr. Geyer. 

“Well,” said Mrs. Geyer. “Finish up your dinner Theo and then we can have dessert.”

Dr. Geyer looked at her and started to laugh.

“What?” said Theo.

“She sent him up without any dessert!” he said between peals of laughter. 

Theo blinked and then started to laugh himself. 

* * *

 

“I cannot believe you didn’t tell me Grandpa George was in town!” Mason said. He was pacing up and down in his room, looking like he was going start tearing a pillow apart. “Seriously dude? What is wrong with you?”

“I guess I didn’t want to think about it,” Liam said. His own anger was being eclipsed by Mason’s.

“Are you okay? Is your dad okay?”

“They’re fine I guess. I left Theo with them.”

There was a pause. “You left the psychopathic enforcer with them?” Mason asked.

“Uh yes?”

“Good!” said Mason with a nod. 

Liam snorted with laughter. 

“Do you need any help?” Mason continued. “I have some herbs here that can give a pretty nasty case of diarrhea.”

“What?!” Liam laughed. 

“Yeah. If we give him rectal diarrhea maybe we won't have to put up with his verbal diarrhea.”

Liam stared at him for a moment and then sputtered with laughter. After a moment Mason joined him. After they had laughed for a good long while, Mason said, 

“No seriously man, if you need help...”

“I know where to get it,” Liam said smiling at him. 

His phone beeped and he opened a text message from Theo. 

 

Theo to Liam: They’re okay. Your mom took care of it. Sadly we didn’t get any video.

 

Liam blinked and then a smiled tugged at the corner of his mouth. He showed the text to Mason who laughed. 

 

Liam to Theo: Thanks for the update. 

Theo to Liam: No probs. 

 

He put away his phone and then stared at Mason. 

“I guess studying is out for now?” asked Mason. 

“I couldn’t concentrate,” Liam agreed. 

“Well,” said Mason. “Deaton called and said that Argent left some poison that he got from an eaten deer carcass in the woods. It had pretty strange tracks leading to it and what looked like some nasty teeth.”

“Poison?” said Liam. 

“And Parrish sensed something with fire,” said Mason. 

“Is any of this connected?” asked Liam. 

“I think the poison might be connected to the exploding stomach lady,” said Mason, “Since it seems to be connected to the snakes. Argent said that there was snake tracks there.”

“Wouldn’t it be venom then?”as ked Liam. 

Mason shrugged. “Theoretically yes, but seeing as we’re not dealing with anything normal it could be poison.”

“Point,” said Liam. “Hey, anything about the hair?”

“Not yet,” said Mason shaking his head. “Do you think the fire thing has anything to do with the liver eater?”

“How should I know?” said Liam. “I don’t remember reading anything like a fiery liver eater.”

Mason was about to reply when a crash of thunder sounded. Only it was wrong. It didn’t come from the sky. Liam had heard enough thunder when the wild hunt was here, enough so that the sound was ingrained in his mind. His enhanced hearing told him that this was lower, much lower. In fact it was more like an earthquake sound, the crashing of something falling to the ground. 

“What the hell?” said Mason. “It was clear out.”

“That wasn’t thunder,” said Liam. “He pulled out his phone and dialed.

“Theo.”

“I heard it,” The chimera’s voice was taunt. “It was east of us.”

“Meet us there,” said Liam, “Mason and I are on our way.”

He jumped out the window and waited. Mason gingerly balanced on the window sill.

“Do I have to do this?”

“Your back door creaks,” Liam told him. 

Mason sighed and crawled down one of the pipes from the gutters until he was low enough to push off. 

Liam caught him awkwardly and the two of them staggered until Liam regained his footing and then they headed of to the car, Mason rubbing his sides because being caught by werewolf strength isn’t easy on fragile human bodies. They took Liam’s car and Liam put it in gear and they were off.

 

Mason to EVERYONE in BH: Going to investigate the not!thunder.

SS: That wasn’t thunder? Stay put.

Mason: Already on our way. TR coming to meet us. 

SS: JP on his way. Give him an address. 

CA: Give me it too. 

 

Mason hastily gave them their current address and direction and then held on as Liam put some of their hunter driving skills to use. 

* * *

 

Corey was just leaving the library after a late brainstorming session for a group project that involved them building a bridge out of cherry sticks and rubber bands for physics. He was so going to ask Theo for help. 

He was about to get into his car when a loud crash of thunder distracted him. 

“Huh,” he said. He looked up expecting to see a large, dark cloud creeping over the sky and was confused to be met with a clear, bright night. 

He frowned but shrugged and was about to turn the key when a faint scream echoed. He froze and then pulled the key out and headed to his trunk. He popped it open, dumped his school bag in and pulled out his crossbow. He slammed the trunk shut, and used the same movement to turn invisible. And then, hidden from normal eyes, Corey went hunting. 

* * *

 

He didn’t think he would have found the body if she hadn’t screamed again. Though scream was an exaggeration. It had been more of a whimper.  He found her body on the edge of the woody area bracketing the road, almost right across from the school. Her stomach was ripped open, flesh hanging on the sides, intestines draped across her like a macabre belt. 

She drew in one more choking breath, fighting to get the air in, against the blood that was bubbling up in her throat and then she was gone, her exhale so much more peaceful. 

Corey froze for a second but movement further into the trees had him stepping past her body and going cautiously forward. 

He cleared the trees and paused as he came upon a dark figure hunched over something. The figure hadn’t noticed him but even as he watched they snatched down to grip the tiny squirming body of something on the ground. It was not a gentle grip. Not the grip of a caring father to it’s child. 

Corey reacted, triggering the crossbow.The arrow flew true but it shattered on impact. Corey flinched but his hands were already working, loading another arrow. He shot again and the figure dodged it this time. It spun and it’s head twisted under the hoodie it wore, evidently trying to figure out where the arrows were coming from. Failing to find a target it  turned and ran off into the darkness. 

Corey hesitated, but opted to go for the tiny figure on the ground. He hurried over to see of the baby was still alive and stopped when he came closer, eyebrows raising as he eyed the small, prone body.

“That’s...gonna take some explaining.”

* * *

 

The baby-thing wasn’t alive. It wasn’t breathing and Corey couldn’t seem to find a pulse anywhere. Besides he was fairly certain it’s neck should not be twisted that way. He reached for his phone and then stopped eyeing the good on his hands. He wiped it away on his pants legs and then dialed the Sheriff.

“Uh Sheriff Stilinski?”

“Corey?” said the Sheriff. “What’s wrong?”

“I have another exploding stomach lady,” he said. “And..uh...something else. We might want to call Melissa.”

“Is she alive?” said the Sheriff. 

“No,” said Corey. “And neither is the baby-thing.”

There was a pause. “Baby-thing?”

“That smear?” said Corey. “I think that’s where the last baby-thing died.”

“Do you want to tell me why you’re calling it a baby-thing?”

“Uh...You should, you should probably see it for yourself.”

A deeply tired sigh came through and then the Sheriff said, “We’re on our way.”

* * *

 

It was only weeks of drilling with Chris Argent that allowed them both to turn onto the same road without crashing or losing speed. Liam had known Theo was coming of course, he had heard the truck as surely as Theo had heard his car. It had given them both the edge they needed not to die a fiery death. Mason on the other had hadn’t known and was currently pressing hand to his racing heart.

“Don’t do that!” he yelled when he got back his breath. 

“Sorry,” said Liam. 

“Do you think we’re close?” He called across to Theo who was racing alongside them.

“Another block maybe and then we’d have to slow,” Theo called back. He was better than Liam about pinpointing where sounds had come from. 

By the time they crossed the block, Parrish’s squad car was behind them while Argent was barreling towards them. 

Liam parked on the side of the road and hopped out. Mason followed him, holding tightly to the baseball bat Liam kept in the car especially for him. 

The others quickly parked and they met in the middle of the road. 

“Any scents?” Argent asked briskly. 

“Not yet,” said Theo.

“No fire,” Parrish added. Liam took several deep breaths and then shook his head. 

“I’m not getting anything either.”

“Split up,” said Parrish. “Call if you find something, yell if you need help.”

They nodded and spilt, Mason sticking with Liam and the other three heading off on their own. Liam jogged along the sidewalk, taking deep breaths and trying not gag whenever he passed a house that owned a dog because he invariably got a noseful of dog poop.

Mason crept by his side looking more like a stalker than an innocent with the baseball bat held ready to strike. Liam hoped no one looked out their windows and saw them or the sheriff might be getting an unnecessary call. 

* * *

 

Argent scanned the sidewalks, taking especially care because unlike the werewolf and chimera he had no extra senses to help him along. He pushed into bushes and checked trash cans. A movement behind him had him spinning and pointing his gun but all it was, was a poor pigeon cocking its head at him before it ignored him and began pecking a a piece of trash in the street.  

He huffed and lowered his gun. 

* * *

 

Theo slipped through the suburbs spinning to catch as much scents as possible. He even jumped atop a wall to see if he could scent or hear anything better. He hadn't come across anything yet though. He continued walking, trying to unobtrusively sniff through people’s gates and walls and listened for the sounds of anything strange. A fluttering caught his eyes and he saw a raven sitting on a tree. It cawed and Theo flapped a hand at it to get it to move. He wasn’t really fond of crows and ravens and other back birds precisely because the Doctors had been fond of them and the birds they’d had, hadn’t been nice. Their eyes were either dead and soulless or wicked and intelligent. Theo hadn’t liked either combination. 

The raven cawed again and flew away. 

* * *

 

Parrish too was moving slowly because hellhound he might be but that didn’t apparently come with enhanced senses. He had his gun out, and was carefully canvassing the area. Just when he thought he might have to turn around he found an area of pavement that was just shattered. He frowned and then lifting his gun, proceeded cautiously towards it. 

Nothing happened when he approached the pavement. He spun looking for any reason why the pavement was shattered and found that beyond the pavement, onto someone’s bridge was another shattered area, ranging in an almost concentric circle. 

He absently noted the ‘for sale’ sign as he moved forward towards the property and found another shattered area and beyond that, the body. 

He hurried over and even though he could see that he’d been gone for awhile, he still felt for a pulse. Finding none, he sighed and called the others before radioing it in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback please!!!!
> 
> Have a nice day/night!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this one!!

 

“How’s George Washington man?” said Scott to Stiles over skype. Stiles gave him a weary look. 

“It’s awful Scotty,” he said mournfully. “They’re making me run.”

Scott tried and failed to hide a smile. “I’m sorry man,” he commiserates. 

“How’s UC Davis lately?” 

“Awesome!” said Scott, eyes lighting up. “But hey, this weekend is a long weekend for me so I’m flying over to visit Lydia.”

“Really!” Stiles said. “Awesome! I have to send you a list.”

“What?” said Scott. 

“You’re gonna take her on a date for me,” said Stiles, rummaging around for paper.

“Uh, what?” said Scott laughing. “Stiles I can’t take Lydia on a date for you.”

“You can and you will. You will follow my instructions!” Stiles pointed threateningly at Scott through the screen and Scott raised his hands in surrender.

“Hey I haven’t heard from Liam lately,” Scott said. 

Stiles paused. “Well that either means nothing bad has happened or something bad is happening and they're too busy to call. Seriously I didn’t find out anything about the dullahan until after Theo engineered it’s death! But no news is good news right? Wait forget I said that, I didn’t hear anything about the anuk-ite either! I still can’t believe you guys never told me anything!”

“We said we were sorry!” protested Scott. “But maybe I should call and find out how they are.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” said Stiles. He paused and then added. “You..should probably call though. But Lydia hasn't had any premonitions beside that one girl in her dorm that was trying to commit suicide, so I think they’re safe.”

“Huh,” said Scott. “How is that girl?”

“Going for counselling,” said Stiles. “Lydia got to her in time.”

“Huh,” said Scott again. He smiled. “It’s nice, being able to use what we are for normal problems.”

Stiles smiled softly too. “Yeah,” he said. 

* * *

 

Liam and the others sans Parrish and the Sheriff, both of whom are out doing the official police stuff that has to be done when a murder is discovered, gather in the animal clinic. Deaton has only arrived a few minutes before them and like them all, sports dark bags under his eyes. Still he is his usual calm self and takes the box holding the baby-thing and the news that he might have to autopsy it, very well. 

Liam hadn’t actually seen the baby thing since Corey brought it over straight from the scene so when Deaton opens the box and allows it to slide onto a metal tray, he recoils a bit.Beside him, Theo’s eyebrows go up but chimera is unmoved. Liam supposed that he had seen much worse with is time with the Dread Doctors. 

The first thing that strikes Liam as he looks at it is that it is wrong. The second thing that strikes him, is that the whole thing is sad. Even if the little body lying on the tray is wrong in so many ways, it’s still a baby, still tiny and soft and helpless, it’s little tail curled around itself, like it’s trying to keep warm, protect itself even  in death, and there’s enough human characteristics in it that his protective instincts rise. 

Mason looks sick, Corey is simply sad and Theo...Theo is sick in another way, like someone realizing that the strange scent they’ve been smelling all along, wasn’t the garbage but the neighbours dead cat. Still he is collected in a way Liam wishes he could be. He holds on to that collected manner and looks to Deaton for answers. 

Deaton slides on gloves and very gently begins to examine the creature. It’s got human-ish hands and a bit of a human chest but the rest of it’s body begins to slim down into a tail, covered in fine shimmering scales. The tails endes a bulbous mass of flesh that looks painful. Liam suspects that had it been alive, it would have been. It’s neck is too large though, too wide and clearly broken. The head is twisted at an odd angle but something was already wrong it it. The bones were jammed out of proportion, only one nostril actually opened to air, it’s jaws were too heavy, it’s eyes far to small and one looks like it was clouded over with more than death. But more that that, the head clearly isn't human. The bone structure is wrong but it’s so distorted Liam can’t tell what it’s meant to be. Short, shimmering hair, no fur, lines it’s face, but there’s not a lot of it. 

When Deaton pries open the tiny hands, little black claws can be seen  but on some of it’s fingers, the claws have grown into the flesh, others in reverse, heading towards eh knuckles instead of out. The human chest is too high, bones oddly formed there as well. In fact the tail, save for the end, looks like the only well formed part of the baby-thing. 

“It’s deformed,” Theo speaks up, breaking the silence. 

“Yes,” said Deaton.

“Is that why he killed it?” asked Mason.

“Most likely,” said Deaton. 

“Can you tell what it is?” asked Corey. Deaton pauses and then shakes his head slowly. 

“It’s too deformed for me to be able to guess,” says Deaton. He finally reaches for a scalpel and although Liam’s stomach gives an uneasy squelch, he manages to stay it until he catches sight of Corey’s face. 

The other chimera looks pale but it’s more than that, guilt, floods from him. Liam reaches out and tugs on his arm and when Corey doesn’t protest, he carefully guides him outside. 

* * *

 

“It’s not your fault,” Liam says after Corey has bent over and taken several deep breaths. 

“If I had moved a little faster…”says Corey. 

“Don’t,” says Liam. “Don’t do that. I know you would have reacted as fast as you could. You’ve trained too hard with Argent not to.”

“I think I hesitated,” Corey says instead.

“That’s the guilt talking,” Liam tells him. “Everything seems slower in hindsight. There’s always a million things you thought you could have done.”

“But I did stop,” Corey says. 

“You had to assess the situation, “Liam says and then adds, “You did it because you didn’t think it was going to hurt it. Am I right?”

Corey pauses and then nods. “But I could have saved it.”

“You made an assessment. And it was the right one,” said Liam. “You couldn’t walk in there without knowing what was happening and once you did know you reacted. You can’t be trigger happy. I know you know that. I know Argent taught you that.”

Corey sighed and looked away.

“Why is this hurting you so much?” Liam asked. “I mean...it killed it’s mother.”

“Because...it’s not it’s fault,” said Corey, looking at him. “It doesn't know better. And even if it’s barely human, it’s still human. Some part of it is. And it’s still her child, right? I mean part of it is whatever impregnated her but part of it is human. And it died. It was still her baby and I couldn’t save it. I couldn't’ save her.”

Corey looks away again but Liam pulls  him forward and hugs him. He doesn’t know how Scott does it, how he gives these hugs that comfort and hold you together without making you feel less, without belittling how you feel, without pandering, but he tries. 

He understands what it’s like to fail. He knows just how much it hurts not to save an innocent. He’s intimate with the feeling of guilt. It’s not okay and he doesn’t try to lie and make Corey think so. But it will get better. He hugs him and tries to convey that Corey is strong enough to make it through, and that they’re all there for him. He doesn’t have to go this alone and that it’s okay to feel scared and shaken and broken. They’ll keep him grounded until he can figure out how to hold himself together. 

It takes awhile but Corey eventually relaxes into his hold, allows himself to soak up the comfort and support Liam offers. It takes  alittle longer for him to stand on his own but when he does his chin is up and there’s the steel wrapped in kindness that Liam witnessed when he opted to keep the Wild Hunt anchored so that Scott could get to the diverter.  He’s not okay, not yet, but he will be. 

* * *

 

The victim is identified as Karen Taylor. She isn't on the pregnancy clinic’s list. She’s a waitress in a restaurant down town and took late night classes in bartending. Her roommate, Cindy Reacher, comes barreling to the hospital to confirm the identification and leaves the morgue in tears. 

The Sheriff sits with his arm around the young woman and she bawls into his jacket and murmurs comforting sounds. It takes a long while before her fists lets go of the handfuls of his jacket and she manages to lean away. The Sheriff offers her some tissues and she wipes her face with shaking hands. 

“What happened?” Cindy says when she can finally talk.  It’s one of the questions the Sheriff hates the most. Sometimes it worse when he does have the answers. 

“It seems like she was target of what may be a serial killer,” said the Sheriff gently. “Now I know this is hard for you but can you answer some questions?”

Cindy sniffs and dabs at her face and then nods a little. Parish choses to show up at that moment with a bottle of water. Bless him, the Sheriff thought involuntarily. 

Cindy takes the water, sips it and then nods again a little stronger this time.

“When was the last time you saw Karen?” Sheriff Stilinski asks her. 

“Uh,two nights ago?” said Cindy. “She was going out that night. She didn’t have classes. She was going to a club.”

“Which club?”

“Uh. Risque-y.”

“Did you hear from her after that?”

“Yeah,” said Cindy. “She called me to let me know she wasn’t coming back that night so to not leave the door open for her. Our apartment lock is giving trouble, it takes sometime to open it from the outside and neither of us like to stand there in the dark for a while when we’re trying to get the door open. Once it didn’t actually open for a couple hours so we tend to leave it unlocked if one of us is coming back late.”

“Did she say why she wasn’t coming home.”

“Uh, she said she was hooking up with some hot guy she met at the club but she didn’t say what his name was or anything. She does this sometimes. Hooks up with guys for a few days so I wasn’t worried. She’d texted me in the morning to say that she was fine and had a great night but that was it. I didn’t hear from her after but that’s normal sometimes so I didn’t think about it. Oh my gosh!” Cindy broke back down in tears. 

“It’s okay,” said the Sheriff gently.When Cindy pulled herself back together, he asked, “Was there anything she mentioned about this guy. Where he lived? How he looked? Anything?”

“Uh..” Cindy sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “Um...I’m not sure. Tall, I think. Uh, she said Tall and handsome…”

“What would Karen call tall?” Parrish asked. 

“Over six feet,” said Cindy. “She liked tall guys.”

“Okay,” said the Sheriff, “Thank you for all your help.”

Cindy nodded and said tearfully, “Please find him.”

“I’ll certainly do my best,” said the Sheriff. “Oh one more thing, how far along was Karen?”

“What?” said Cindy, frowning. 

The Sheriff paused. “The ME said that it looked like Karen may have been pregnant,” he said gently.

Cindy’s jaw dropped and tears filled her eyes anew. “It...I…I didn’t know. I don’t know if she did. She had her period last month so it wouldn’t have been long.”

“I see,” said the Sheriff. “Thank you again.”

He told Parrish to get her a cab home and the deputy took CIndy’s arm gently and steered the shocked young woman down the hall. But suddenly Cindy stopped. 

“Oh,” she said. She turned to look at the Sheriff. “Karen said he was Russian. That he had a russian accent.”

“Russian?” Sheriff Stilinski said. 

Cindy nodded. 

“Okay. Thank you Cindy. That could really help.”

As Parrish led the young woman to the entrance the Sheriff pulled out his phone and dialed. 

* * *

 

Liam’s phone rang. He and Theo were on their way home, Liam opting to go back to his house. Mason was driving Liam's car to his own house so Liam was riding with Theo. Liam looked at the called ID and saw the Sheriff. 

“Hey Sheriff Stilinski.”

“Liam,” said the Sheriff. “I just got through talking to the victim’s roommate.”

“Did she have anything to say?” Liam asked. 

“Actually she did,” The Sheriff told him. “A couple of things actually. The first was that the guy she apparently hooked up with last, was russian or had a russian accent. The second, that she had only been pregnant for a month for the most because she had her cycle as usual last month. We’re going to try and look for this russian guy, maybe whatever this is, paid him off to bring Karen to him.”

“Okay,” said Liam. “I’ll tell Deaton and Melissa.”

“I’ll tell Melissa,” said the Sheriff. “I’m still at the hospital.”

“Okay,” said Liam. “Thanks.”

He hung up and looked at Theo. The chimera glanced at him and then said. “That’s interesting.”

“So this thing matured in a month?” asked Liam. 

“Maybe,” said Theo. 

Liam scrolled through his contacts to find Deaton’s number. He was just about to call when Theo slammed on the breaks. Liam almost hit the dash. As it was he slammed his face into his phone.

“What the hell?!” said Liam.  

“Russian,” said Theo looking at him. “The Sheriff said the last guy she was with, was russian right?”

“Yeah,” said Liam, still confused. 

“Call Deaton,” said Theo.

“I was about to do that,” grumbled Laim. 

Theo ignored him. “Ask him if the hair could have been lion hair.”

“Lion?” said Liam but he called anyway.

“Liam,” said Deaton. “Is there a problem?”

“Theo want to know if the hair you found could have been lion hair,” said Liam.

There was a pause. “Potentially, yes,” said Deaton. “But the hairs were underdeveloped. It was difficult to make an accurate analysis. The labs would tell for sure.”

Liam looked at Theo. “Now will you tell me why we’re stopped in the middle of the road?”

“Parrish said he sensed something with fire right?” said Theo. “And Argent found poison?”

“Yes,” said Liam.

“I think I know what it is,” he declared.

“Wait what?” said Liam. 

“Yuxa,” said Theo. “I know it because it’s kinda like a chimera too. It has the body of a snake but the head of a lion and it has a stinger on the end of it’s tail. It’s a russian creature. It’s said to be either a beautiful man or woman who seduces people and impregnates them. Well that’s in the case of male yuxas I guess.”

“Theo’s right,” said Deaton. “Yuxas are said to be creatures formed whenever a snake reaches to a 100 years old.”

Liam blinked. “So a really old snake is knocking up people?”

“It’s not really a 100 year old snake,” said Deaton. “It’s a preternatural creature.”

“It’s supposed to be able to breathe fire,” said Theo. 

“Which accounts for what Parrish sensed,” said Liam. “But wait, if the russian guy was the yuxa...then Karen got impregnated and then gave birth the day after.”

There was a pause. 

“Guess there’s a reason why no one ever said what happened to the people the yuxa impregnated,” Theo said finally.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to mention,” Liam said. “I have to call the Sheriff.”

Deaton said his goodbyes and then Liam called the Sheriff and updated him. That done he turned his attention to the chat.

 

Liam to EVERYONE in BH:Exploding stomach lady is caused by a yuxa. Beware of guys with russian accents. May cause women to give birth the day after they are impregnated. Can breath fire. 

CA: Noted.

JP: Thanks. Any weakness?

Liam: None that I know of.

MH: Give me a few minutes, I’ll find some.

CB: Why is it killing people using babies?

CA: That's what we have to find out. I doubt it’s just doing that arbitrarily or we’d have a lot more of these cases floating around.

SS: I’m talking to someone who might give us some more info. Update later. 

Liam: Any update on the other body?

JP: Not yet. We’re still working on an ID. Will update as info comes in. 

MH: No specific weakness for a yuxa. It’s a shapechanger so mountain ash should work but it does breath fire, has poison and it’s scales are supposedly very tough for the one vague account of a man trying to fight it away from his girlfriend. I guess it can be hurt like any other creature but it’ll take some effort.

TR: Call Eichen then. We’ll need a place to hold it if we can capture it without killing it or getting ourselves killed.

MH:On it. 

MM: Just for confirmation, the other body’s liver is missing.

Liam: Thanks. 

 

“You’re not supposed to text and drive,” Liam told Theo as he put away his phone. 

Theo shrugged and pulled up in front of the house. Liam looked at it and then sighed as he realized that the lights were still on. He checked the time and winced when he saw that it was after one. 

“I think they sat up waiting for us,” said Liam.

“Well let's not keep them up any longer shall we,” said Theo. “I want to go to sleep.” Liam rolled his eyes but got out of the truck.

* * *

 

When they both peeked into the living room to see who was up, they found only Dr. Geyer sitting there watching a game on mute. 

“Hey,” Liam said lamely.

“You know, I’m pretty sure you have an unofficial curfew,” Dr. Geyer said. “that goes something like you should be home by eleven.”Liam winced. 

“Now I know things have been hard for you these last few days. They haven’t been any picnic for me either. And honestly, I know you can take care of yourself. But your mom, she worries. You know she hates for you to be out late especially since you disappeared for two days in Mexico. And the crime situation in Beacon Hills really doesn’t help.”

“I’m sorry,” said Liam. “It’s just...Corey was having some problems and Mason and I went over to help him and we lost track of time.”

“And you Theo?” asked Dr. Geyer. 

Theo shrugged. “I went to help Liam help Corey mostly because I didn’t really want to stay inside just then.”

Dr. Geyer sighed. “Look I know your friends are important and I’ll never not tell you to help them but next time can we get a text or call please?”

Liam nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

“It’s okay,” said Dr. Geyer. “I’m not mad. But just for next time yeah?”

“YEah,” Liam nodded feeling terrible but his dad got up and hugged him firmly and squeezed Theo’s shoulder and then he was gone.

“Is it supposed to feel like that?” Theo asked in an odd tone.

“Like what?” asked Liam.

“Worse, when they’re kind.”

Liam sighed and his shoulders slump. “Yeah. It always does.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is a wonderful thing. As a writer I love it. Tell me what you liked, what you hated. 
> 
> Have a nice day/night!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy!

Liam is awakened by a text at 7:00 am sharp. 

 

JP to Liam: The lab confirmed that the hair found from the smear is lion hair. But hair mostly found from a cub. When the results from the crime scene yesterday comes in I’ll update. 

Liam to JP: Thanks. 

 

He sits up and wipes the sleep from his eyes and stumbles into the bathroom. Theo is already long gone, he notes. He grabs his bag and heads down to the kitchen intending to grab a slice of toast before heading out as he has several places he wants to visit before he heads over to school. He makes it to the kitchen without incident and finds waffles and fruit covered on the counter waiting for him. 

He snatches the plate and almost runs into Grandpa George. The old man smirks at him. 

“Well look who came back. You got to get a handle on that temper boy. But then it doesn’t matter huh? If you’re always running out like a coward.”

The suddenness of the attack leaves Liam reeling for a second and he wants to just punch Grandpa George in the face. In fact his hand is already moving but he catches himself in time. Grandpa George blinks because Liam has werewolf speed and that means his hand is half cocked behind his ear in a split second. Then he sees that Liam has stopped and opens his mouth to say something else but Liam beats him to it.

“I don’t care,” he says and Grandpa George frowns a little. “Whatever it is that you’re going to say. I don’t care. I don’t have the time to deal with your bullshit so you should stop attempting to smear it on me. You think you can rile me up like making me lose my temper will somehow reflect on my dad but it won’t. The only thing that does is show how petty and small-minded you are. So I don’t care what the hell you say. You literally do not register on my radar. We’re done.” He pushes past Grandpa George and continues out the house. He hops in the car and calls Mason. 

“Hey can you meet me at the Sheriff station?”

“Yeah, sure,” said Mason. “The Sheriff got something?”

“No,” said Liam. “But I have a pretty terrible idea. Want to come help me pitch it?”

“How terrible is terrible?” Mason asks but before Liam can reply he adds, “Should I bring my laptop so we can make a powerpoint?”

Liam laughs and hangs up. 

* * *

 

Mason pulls up when he does and he has Corey with him. Liam meets them and offers, “Waffle?”

“Nah I ate,” said Mason. Corey snatches the waffle. 

“Is that strawberries?” Corey asks. 

“I don’t share strawberries,” Liam informs him, “But there's a  pear.” Corey snatches the pear. 

“So what’s your awful plan?” Corey asks.

“I really only want to say it once,” Liam says as he walks into the station. 

“That bad huh?” said Mason. 

They find Parrish who jerks his head towards Sheriff Stilinski's office. The Sheriff looks a little worse for wear when they walk in, dark circles under his eyes.”

“You could ask Scott for the bite,” Corey says sympathetically when he sets eyes on the Sheriff. 

Sheriff Stilinski coughs and then laughs. “Thanks but uh, I thinks that’s too much drama for my old age. Now what do you boys want?”

“Liam has a terrible plan,” Mason says. “He thinks he should share it with us.”

“Ahh,” said the Sheriff. He looks at Parrish. “Can you get me some coffee?” Liam and the others wait patiently for Parrish to come back before he starts. 

“Did you all manage to get any footage of the guy from the club?”

“No,” Parrish answers. “He worked the camera angles like a charm.”

“Okay. So we don’t know what he looks like and asking someone at the club to remember him most likely isn’t going to work out right?”

“Right,” agreed the Sheriff. 

Liam turns to Mason, “Okay so the yuxa, he must have a reason for picking Karen right? I mean, there must have been a million women in that club but picked her.”

“Well. Yeah but maybe Karen was the just the first girl he scored with.”

“He’s a very old preternatural creature who goes around impregnating people. Like that is what it is known for. I’m pretty sure he can score in under five minutes,” Liam said. 

“What’s the deal with all this?” asks Sheriff Stilinski. 

“The deal is that Karen must have some requirement that made her a target.”

“Uh yeah okay. How does that help us?” asked Corey looking confused. 

“Because this thing wants a baby for some reason right?” asked Liam. 

“Yeah,” said Mason. 

“So who are the first people you’d go to for easy sex and probably won’t be noticed if they're missing for a few days?”

“Prostitutes,” Parrish speaks up. “You think the yuxa would have gone to them first. But no prostitutes are dead.”

“And they take birth control,” said Corey.

“I’m not putting it past the yuxa to get them knocked up despite that,” Liam says. “And yes no prostitutes are dead because he didn’t find what he was looking for but they would have seen him. Guy with a russian accent? Maybe they’d remember. And maybe he talked with them, maybe gave a clue about what he was looking for.”

“Maybe,” said Mason, eyes far away. “We should do a DNA comparison on the first two victims though,” said Mason.

“Why?” said Stilinski, frowning. 

“Because the babies came out deformed,” said Mason. “You’re talking interspecies mixing here. It’s not like werewolves who were human before so they can have children with humans. The Yuxa was never human, that’s why the baby came out deformed. Look at what happened when the Doctors tried to mix human DNA with something else. Most of their tries didn't exactly work out.”

“So maybe he’s looking for someone compatible,” said Parrish. “Someone with whom the baby will come out right.”

“Karen and the first victim,” said Liam. “They were probably close.”

“As close as you can get,” said Mason. “Maybe it would have worked with a second or third try but the way the babies are born...he only get’s one shot with each woman.”

The Sheriff rubs at his forehead. “Alright. I’ll make the request. Parrish, you and Farrell get the fun job of talking to our local ladies. Is that all?” He directs the last question to Liam. 

“Actually,” said Liam. “I was wondering if you had a list of all the clubs in the area.”

There is silence for a moment and then Mason said, “I love this plan.”

“No!” said the Sheriff.

“Look he’s going to have to pick someone up soon again,” said Liam, “We have to stop him. He used a club the last time.”

“And he could use a bar this time,” said the Sheriff.

“But bartenders remember people,” argued Liam. “Clubs are a better hunting ground.”

“He’s right,”said Corey. “They’re dark and what lights there are usually makes recognizing some more difficult, not easier.”

“One,” said the Sheriff, “You shouldn’t even know that. Two, you’re underage so you can’t get into a club. Three, there’s no chance that this yuxa will show up in any of the clubs.”

“Well we have to try something,” said Liam. “Argent, Parrish, Theo and you aren’t underage. Melissa too. Maybe you can throw in Farrell because he remembers right?” Parrish nods. “As for us…”

“I can turn invisible,” said Corey. “I can get both of them in before I head out to my spot.”

“I’m supposed to let you do this?” said the Sheriff.

“Let us battle dangerous preternatural creatures?” said Liam, raising an eyebrow. The Sheriff narrowed his eyes.

“Have you been taking lessons from Stiles?” he asked suspiciously. 

“Worse,” said Mason. “He’s friends with him. Besides it’s actually not the first time we’ve done that in a club setting.”

The Sheriff sighed. “Fine I’ll get a list and text it over.”

* * *

 

When they’ve reach a point in math class when they’re supposed to working on some problems, Corey sneaks out his phone. 

 

Corey to Melissa: Do you want me to come and view the next body after school?”

Melissa to Corey: Yes, please. Maybe we can something more.

Corey to Melissa: Will do.

* * *

 

Halfway through second period Liam gets a text from the Sheriff. He opens it to find a list of club names. There are only five in Beacon HIlls itself but there are two more in Beacon County. Three of the five are mixed, which seems to be the more logical places to start. He sends a pic of the clubs to everyone. 

 

Liam to EVERYONE IN BH: Do we cover all five clubs or just mixed?

CA: Just mixed. But there private parties too. 

JP: You have to file a noise permit for large parties. We have two on tonight.

MH: No chatter about any parties in our school. 

Liam: Give me a sec. I’ll find out about Devenford Prep.

CB: All the parties are planned for after the lacrosse match on Friday.

CA: Then we cover the mixed clubs and the parties. 

JP: I think you’ll  need invitation to the parties. 

CB: I beg to differ. 

MM: Soo how are we splitting? I’m off tonight btw. 

JP: The parties are least likely to be hit. So one person each there. I’ll bring Farrel with me and we’ll take one club.

CA: MM and I can take  another. LD and TR will take the third. MH, you and CB take the parties. 

SS: Call for backup, any of you, if you need it. 

TR: We’re going clubbing to catch a yuxa?

Liam: How late are you?

TR: Sorry for actually doing my job. Who is going to which club?

Liam: No idea. No parties at Devenford prep.

 

It takes them the rest of the period to hash out the details and Liam almost gets his phone confiscated, but manages to hide it before the teacher snatches it. 

* * *

 

 

It seems to take forever for school to finish but then the bell is ringing and Mason meets him by his locker. 

“Hey Parish called and said to meet him at the station. Some of the tests came through for the body we found last night, the liver one.”

“Okay,” said Liam.

“We’re going with your car,” said Mason. “Corey is using mine to go to the hospital. Melissa wants him to go over the body and see if there's anything else normal eyes might miss sometimes.”

“Good point,” said Liam. “Maybe he’ll find something else.”

* * *

 

Melissa rolls out the body from it’s morgue unit and flips back the sheet. Corey grimaces. 

“How do you guys just watch this?”

Melissa gives him a little smile. “You get inured to it after a while,” she relied honestly. 

“Huh,” said Corey. 

He leaned forward and examines the body normally first and then he goes invisible. Melissa waits patiently while he examines the body. When he reappears he is frowning. 

“What is it?” asked Melissa. 

“I think there's some more obsidian but its smaller, just flecks actually.”

“Okay,” said Melissa. “That doesn't seem to be sufficient reason as to why you’re frowning like that.”

“It’s just…” said Corey. “The flecks? They aren’t all by the liver.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most of the flecks are concentrated by the liver right? But there is a second concentration around this guys heart.”

“Okay…” said Melissa, “That is weird. Here,” she handed him a petri dish. “Take out the slivers.”

“Maybe you should do it,” Corey said. “You have a steadier hand than I do.” 

He put his hand on her shoulder and sent them both invisible. 

“Huh,” said Melissa. She bent over the body. Corey was right, there were two separate concentrations of flecks. She took her time removing all the flecks and then Corey made them visible again. 

They both stared at the petri dish of flecks.”Why would there be two concentrations?” said Melissa. 

“Maybe whoever it was just hit them twice with whatever it is they’re using.”

“But there’s no damage to his heart,” Melissa argued. 

Corey frowned. “What if there is?”

“What do you mean?”

“When alpha werewolves attack betas they heal slower, right? I mean they heal on the outside but the inside isn’t healed.”

“You think this guy was a werewolf?”

“No,” said Corey, “But what if this thing did damage to the inside of his heart?”

Melissa frowned and then sighed and picked up a scalpel. “I’m going to get in so much trouble.”

After  a few moments both she and Corey were staring at the dead man’s heart, more precisely, the incision Melissa had made in the dead man’s heart. 

“There’s a hole,” said Corey. 

“In the bucket, dear Liza,” finished Melissa. “He has a hole in his heart.”

“And there are more flecks in the hole,” said Corey. 

“So whoever killed him stabbed him  in the heart. But how did he survive?”

“I don’t know,” said Corey. “Maybe he didn't and that’s how it got him to the abandoned house.”

“He should have died nearly instantly,” said Melissa.

Corey raised his hands in surrender. “I was dead and now I’m not,” he said. “We really can’t, you know…”

Melissa sighed. “There’s usually some logic in the madness.”

“I guess that’s why we’re tripping up on this one,” Corey said. “Maybe logic doesn’t actually have to be there. The Wild Hunt just takes souls just because.”

“So we have a liver eater who stabbed a man in the heart with stone that isn’t really stone and then ripped open his chest to get to his liver.”

“That...actually sounds familiar,” Corey said. 

“What?”

“I think I heard, no read, something like this before. On a pack study night.”

“Which pack study night?” Melissa said. 

“I, I, don’t know. I can’t remember. It was a while ago I think.”

“One of the earlier ones then,” said Melissa. “Okay let’s go over everything, see if anything can jog your memory.”

“Okay,” said Corey. 

“Hold on,” Melissa pushed the body back into its unit, stripped off her gloves and then went over to one of the tables. 

“So we have two victims, one male, one female, both had their livers taken and there were fleck of stone-obsidian in their wounds. The male victim had also been stabbed in the heart, we don’t know about the female victim. Both victims were found in empty for sale lots. The second time the murder took place there was a sort of thunder right? The others went there, Parrish said the ground was destroyed too, in two circular patterns. One was right next to the body. Anything else?”

“Uh, no scent,” added Corey. “No one got any scents at either crime scene. There was only the victims’.”

“Right,” said Melissa. “No fingerprints either. No footprints.”

“Um...yeah. No one saw anybody out on the streets that night. No one leaving, no scent that might indicate a trial after they finished with the body. All Argent said he saw was a hungry pigeon. And then Theo said he saw a raven but it wasn’t hungry.” Corey shuts up when he realized that he’s actually babbling. “Sorry,” he says. He goes back to trying to remember what he had read. 

Melissa too tries to remember but she’s missed a lot of pack study nights so she just mightn’t have been there. 

“Wait,” she says suddenly. “Theo said he saw a raven?”

“Uh, yeah,” says Corey. 

“It wasn’t a crow right? It was a raven?”

“That’s what he said,” said Corey confused. 

“Look as far as I know, ravens are common in California but I’ve only ever seen crows in Beacon Hills.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because I remember something about a woman in a stone dress with a raven, from one of our study nights.”

“Uh...Native american stuff!” Corey says suddenly. “I remember now! Spearfinger. An old lady with a sharp stone finger who eats livers. It was  a cherokee myth.”

“Right and she was supposed to be able to crush rocks and walk with a thunderous sound because of her stone skin” added Melissa. “I was actually there for that.”

“But we read so many things,” said Corey. “I can barely remember it.”

“I am never going to rag on Deaton again for not figuring out things right away,” murmured Melissa.

“Tell me about it,” said Corey.

“Alright,” said Melissa, “We have to tell the others.”

“I’ll do it,” said Corey. “I’ll meet them down at the station.”

* * *

 

“Good,” said the Sheriff when Liam and Mason bundled through his door. He gestured to Parrish and the four of them crowded around the desk. 

“Okay, so some of the initial scene reports made it back,” said the Sheriff. “Like the first murder there were no fingerprints anywhere and strangely enough,no evidence of anything being wiped down. It looks like this guy just went to the lot and ripped his own chest out.”

“Corey and Melissa are examining the body now,” said Mason. “If they find anything new, they’ll tell us. But there were stone/obsidian flecks in the first victim.”

“But what we’ve also gotten a report back is that those shattered areas? There was what looked like footprint in the middle of them.”

“A footprint?” said Liam. “Like someone stomped the ground and broke it?”

“Yep.”

He blinked. “Okay we can do that but if it was a werewolf it would have left a trail right?”

“Or at the very least some sort of residue since the footprint? It was a bare foot. But no tests for residual skin cells came back positive.”

“What if the whole creature is stone,” said Mason suddenly. “Those stone/obsidian slivers? What if it’s not part of a tool but part of the creature.”

“Which would account for no scent,” said Pasrrish. “Since everything would smell like stone.”

“Exactly,” said Mason. Just then Liam’s phone rang. 

“It’s Corey,” he said frowning. “Hello?”

“Put me on speaker,” Corey said. 

Liam put him on speaker and put the phone on the desk. “Go,” he said. 

“It’s spearfinger,” said Corey. 

“What?” said the Sheriff. 

“A native american creature. It’s made of stone and eats livers. We read about it, on a pack night.”

“I have no memory of that,” Liam said blankly. 

“Uh, I do. I think. Vaguely, “ said Parrish.

“Uh..yes!” said Mason in  triumph. “I do remember this. There were two of them though. Two things that ate livers. Which one is this?”

“Spearfinger,” said Corey. “Theo said he saw a raven right? Ravens are the friends of the spearfinger. Also she’s supposed to walk with the sound of thunder.”

“Hence the footprint,” said the Sheriff sighing. “Look is there anyway to figure out the next target of this thing?”

“Uh..” Corey trialed off. 

“I don’t know,” said Mason. “Back in the old days, it just used to pick off anybody who were by themselves because it was easy prey.”

“Well we’ll have to continue to look for a connection,” said the Sheriff. 

“I’ll re-read what I can,” Mason volunteered. “And get back to you.”

“Thanks Mason,” said Parrish. 

“What time are you guys going out tonight?” the Sheriff asked.

“Just before peak,” said Liam. “So about half-nine. We’ll get there before the crowds really start to come in.”

“Alright,” said the Sheriff. “Call for backup if you need it and please try not to engage in the club itself. This thing can breath fire. I don’t want that club to go up in flames with a panicking crowd on the inside. That goes for you too Parrish.”

Parrish nodded sharply. “Only if necessary sir.”

“Good,” said the Sheriff. “Parrish, you and Farrel can leave. Rest up before tonight. You too boys.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, there will be action next chapter!!!
> 
> FYI: Farrel is the deputy who lead the threesome that locked up Parrish in Eichen and whom got totally destroyed by Sheriff Stilinksi. Needless to say it made an impression and Deaton's memory concoction didn't really work on him. He's currently Parrish's partner since it makes things easier if Parrish ever has to go hellhound on the job.
> 
> "There's a hole in the bucket dear Liza," is a line from a song. And if you haven't watched the Sesame Street skit for it, you should definitely go do that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy! Unfortunately this might be my last chapter for this month until nanowrimo is over! If I can squeeze in a chapter in between I might but it may not happen. :(  
> Thanks for all you guys who have commented and gave kudos! You guys rock!

“Mom I'm studying by Mason!” Liam yelled as he dashed out the front door later that night. 

“I’m just hanging out by Mason,” Theo called out a breath later as he too ran out the house. They both dived into the truck and Theo hit the gas. 

“Phew,” Liam said as he sank back into the seat. His mother would not have believed that he was going to be studying at all if she’d seen how he was dressed. 

“Got your fake ID?” Theo asked. 

“Yep,” said Liam, patting his pocket. 

“Got enough money to get in?” 

“Yes,” said Liam, switching on the GPS to get the directions to the club.  “We’re at The Ebon Floor.”

“I know which club we’re going to Liam,” Theo said. 

“Right,” said Liam. 

* * *

 

Soon they were pulling up at The Ebon Floor. They parked and went to the doors. There was a breathless moment as Liam’s ID was checked but it had been made by Stiles so it held up. Then they were inside. 

Both of them checked when they entered. 

“What the shit?” said Theo. 

“I guess we know why it’s called The Ebon Floor,” said Liam staring at the utter darkness inside the club.

“Wow,” said Melissa as she looked around Risque-y, “I have not been in a club in a while.”

Chris gave her a little smile and admitted. “Neither have I. This is a little too…”

“Young?” Melissa suggested, eyebrows raised. 

Chris was too smart for that. “Wild,” he said. “A little too wild for my taste.”

“It does have an appeal,” Melissa said. 

“I’m not too fond of the music,” said Argent. “It’s too loud in here for me to hear anything.”

“I don't’ think anyone over the age of forty is fond of lund this is,” said Melissa. “But the beat does get your blood racing. So what are we doing? How do we find this thing?”

“My guess is, once he’s found who he’s looking for he’s going to be very focused on her. He’ll be almost predatory,” Chris told her. 

“Most of the people here are a little predatory,” said Melissa glancing at a young man who was eyeing her.

“He’ll also be over six feet and speaks with an accent. Maybe he’ll even have russian features.”

“Right!” Melissa yelled over the music. “So do we just stand around and look like weirdos or…?”

“Let’s get some drinks from the bar and find a good vantage point!” Chris yelled back. He held out his hand and Melissa smiled, took it and let him lead her to the bar. 

* * *

 

“I did not know this place even existed,” said Farell as he and Parrish threaded their way through the crowd at Sinema. 

“It’s a little low key,” Parrish said. They settled at the bar and ordered drinks. 

“So what do we do if we see this guy?” Farrell asked. 

“Distract him and get him out the club if possible. We pull badges if necessary.”

“If he decides to fight?”

“Pull the fire alarm,” Parrish told him. “And get everybody out.”

“We aren’t going to see everyone from here,” said Farell.

“I know,” said Parrish. “We have to take turns to mingle while one of us stays on the outside.”

“Who’s going first?”

“You are,” said Parrish. Farell grinned and slipped into the crowd. 

* * *

 

“Alright,” said Corey as he and Mason rematerialized inside the private residence where the party was being held. “I have to run. I’m cutting it close.” 

“Okay. You have your crossbow?” 

Corey nodded. “You have your batons?” 

Mason patted his jacket. “Yep. And some stuff Deaton helped me cook up.”

“Cool,” said Corey glancing at his watch. “I have to go now.”

“Go,” said Mason. “We can’t afford for anybody to be out of place.”

“I know,” said Corey. “I don’t ever want to see another dead baby.”

Mason grimaced. “Me either.” Corey ran down the hall, fading into nothingness. A few minutes later, his car started as he drove over the next party. 

* * *

 

Okay to say that the club was pitch black was an exaggeration. There were lights, strips of neon that ran around the baseboard and rimmed tables. The dance floor was a throbbing sea of glowbands and dull neon strips set into the roof of the club slowly melted from one color to another. 

Liam blinked feeling overwhelmed. It felt like the club was a living breathing creature that had swallowed them while, the darkness fusing everyone inside into one being.The noise wasn’t excessively loud like most clubs he’d been to. Oh it was loud enough but not so loud as to lure you out of it’s embrace. The bass thrummed beneath his feet like a heartbeat, one that was racing with the pleasure, the thrill, of the approaching kill. 

“You okay?” Theo asked and Liam realised he had frozen in place. 

He shook his head a little to clear it and said, “Yeah.”

“Well we have to move,” said Theo.

Liam nodded and they started their way through the club, slowly mapping the place as they went. Liam pulled out his phone and shot off a quick message to the group.

 

Liam to EVERYONE in BH: We’re in position.

CB: In position.

MH: In position.

MM: We are too.

JP: In position. 

SS: Be careful and call for backup if you need it. Keep me updated. 

 

“Everyone in position?” Theo asked.

“Yup,” said Liam. He looked around. “Spilliting up?”

“Splitting up,” Theo agreed. “We’ll meet back at the bar.” Liam nodded and the two of them moved to opposite side of the club, prowling carefully as they searched for the reptilian scent and listened for a russian accent. 

* * *

 

Sheriff Stilinski sat at his desk as he worked on the two sets of murders he had on his hands. It was three hours since the pack had started their vigil and so far there was nothing of note save that Mason apparently had ended up in the world’s most boring party. 

(‘They're playing bridge!’ the teenager had texted. ‘Who plays bridge?’)

He was just about to take a break when one of this deputies came in. 

“Sheriff,” he said. “There’s a young woman here. She says she’ll only talk to you.”

He frowned and then nodded. “Sure, let her in.”

He lifted an eyebrow when she same in. She was young, early twenties, dressed in a long fur coat but her face was made up delicately and aimed to seduce. She looked nervous and he knew why. Prostitution was against the law and she was worried she might have made a mistake in coming here.

“Can I help you?” he asked gently. 

She swallowed and her hands twisted in her coat but she lifted her chin after a moment. “I, maybe I can help you?”

“And how's that?”

“You uh, there were two deputies earlier? They were asking questions, about a man? A russian guy?”

“Yes that’s correct. Did you see him?”

“I might have,” she said. “I’m, I’m not really sure.”

“Okay, that’s okay. Why do you sit and tell me what you know?”

The girl looked at the chair nervously as if it were a trap and slowly walked over to it. After a moment of deliberation she sat gingerly. 

“Alright, so when did you meet this guy?”

“I didn’t really meet him. He was talking to...some friends of mine. I was walking over to meet them and I saw him.”

“What makes you think he was russian?”

“Well he had that sort of look? The features? That’s what made him stand out to me and then as I got closer I could hear him better. He had an accent. Definitely european and my first thought was that it was russian.”

“Did you get a good look at his face?”

“I.. not really. I mean I saw him but he turned and went past me so fast you know.” 

“But you did see him?” 

“Yes,” she said decisively. 

“Okay Ms…?”

“Rena,” she said. 

“Okay Ms. Rena would you be willing to work with a sketch artist for us?”

“Um,” she swallowed. “Okay.”

“Thank you. Now when was this?”

“About a week ago? I heard some of the girls say that he’d been around before, like a few days before I saw him. He talked to um, a lot of my friends.”

“Is he the only guy with an accent recently?”

“Un-american? Yeah,” said Rena decisively. 

“Okay, thank you. I’m gonna get the sketch artist for you now okay?”

“Okay,” said Rena. 

* * *

 

While he was waiting for Rena and the sketch artist the Sheriff’s phone rang.

“Stilinski,” the voice on the end said. 

“Agent McCall,” he greeted. 

“I went looking for that info you asked me to find,” said Agent McCall.

“Did you get anything?”

“About your stomach bursting woman killer? No. I didn’t get any recent files on those. The most that came up was a newspaper clipping from 100 years ago, detailing something similar but no pictures, nothing. Your other case, I did get some hits actually. About four years aback, there were a series of killings, with people whose livers were taken. Four victims actually. The killer then stopped abruptly and left. There was a case previous to that one, two years before, same thing but only two victims. But the killer crossed state lines and I don’t think anyone realised that there were two similar cases, let alone that they were related. If you hadn’t asked me, I wouldn't have known.” 

“Can you get me those case files?” The sheriff asked. 

“I can get you the important bits,” said Agent McCall, “but I’ll need a day or two.”

“Get me it as soon as you can,” said the Sheriff. 

“Will do,” said Agent McCall and hung up. 

* * *

  
  


Half and hour later, Melissa’s phone beeped. She opened the message to find a picture. 

“We got a sketch of the guy,” she told Chris. Argent pulled out his phone and inspected the picture and then nodded. 

* * *

 

“We got a sketch,” Theo told Liam. “Looks like your idea paid off.”

“Yeah,” said Liam. ‘This will…” 

“What is it?” Theo asked him as he broke off.

Liam jerked his head to a guy just ahead of him. “He looks an awful lot like the sketch.”

Theo turned to look and found a guy leaning against the bar, talking to a blushing girl. His eyes narrowed he tilted his head and focused his hearing. 

“That’s a russian accent,” he murmured.

“Yes it is,” Liam agreed and there was rage in his voice. 

“Sheriff,” said Liam into his phone, “You should send back up.”

He glanced at Theo whose eyes flashed and then they were both muscling their way through the crowd. 

* * *

 

“Parrish, get to The Ebon Floor now!” said the Sheriff. “Liam and Theo found him.”

“On it,” said Parrish. He nodded to Farell who was on the other side of the room and they both bolted for the door. 

* * *

 

As they got closer, Liam could smell the reptilian scent curling through the human body odor.He and Theo instinctively spit up, moving to flank the couple and trap the yuxa between them. They had almost reached the pair when the yuxa, apparently sensing something looked up. It was too late though, Liam darted forward and grabbed a handful of it’s t-shirt and slammed him back onto the bar. 

“What the hell Liam?” a girl's voice yelled out even as delicate hands tugged at his arm. 

Startled Liam looked across to find that the girl was one of his schoolmates, a senior like him. 

“Stacy-ann?” he said. He got slapped in the mouth for his trouble. 

“Shit!” he hissed and then he was pushed forcefully back by the yuxa. 

“Come on darling,” the yuxa drawled to Stacy-ann, “Why don’t we get out of here?”

“Yeah,” she said, still staring at Liam like he was the world’s biggest jerk. She took the yuxa’s hand and the action spurred him into motion. 

“No!” he snapped and yanked their hands apart. 

“Liam!” shrieked Stacy-ann. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” Liam said in panic. 

“You’re not supposed to be here, you jerk! You’re younger than I am! And you have literally no say in my life.”

“Look,” said Liam desperately. “He’s not.. a good guy.”

“The only bad guy I see here,” said Stacy-ann, “is you. Freak.” She reached to take the yuxa’s hand again but Liam interspaced himself between them. 

The yuxa spoke before Liam got punched in the face. “Look darling, let’s not get you in trouble yeah? I’ll see you later.” 

Liam turned to see him and the yuxa smiled at him, blew a kiss to Stacy-ann and walked off. Liam made to follow him but someone yanked on his arm hard enough to spin him around and then Stacy-ann broke his nose. 

* * *

 

While Liam was being defeated by his classmate Theo was trailing the yuxa through the crowd. 

It threaded its way through the club and exited through a side door, obviously heading for the parking lot. 

Theo let the door bang shut after him. The yuxa stopped.

“So,” he said, accent heavy on each word. “There’s two of you.”

“He can count,” Theo said, flicking out his claws. 

The yuxa laughed. “Those aren’t going to work on me werewolf.”

“Good thing I’m not a werewolf then,” Theo said and attacked. 

* * *

 

Liam opened the door in time to get hit with a flying chimera.

“Okay this is the first time I wished I got something other than werewolf and coyote,” Theo groaned as he pushed himself upright. Liam pushed him of himself and rolled to his feet, eyes flashing and claws out. 

The yuxa roared at him and Liam countered with a roar of his own. 

“You can’t stop me!” the yuxa roared. 

Liam didn’t deign that with a response launching forward and swiping at the yuxa. The yuxa dodged the first blow but Liam changed level in his next strike slashing behind his knee. His claws didn’t get through, clanging against silver scales that were rippling over the yuxa’s body but the force of the blow still caused his knee to buckle. 

The yuxa dropped to one knee and Theo spun and kicked him the face, knocking him to the ground. But the yuxa was tough. He rolled crashing into Theo and taking him off his feet and coming to his. 

His eyes flared green, long claws sprouted from his fingers and he swiped at Liam. Liam jumped back and that move gave the yuxa time for him to complete his transformation. 

His blonde hair became a shaggy mane, face morphing into a lion's head while the rest of his body slimmed into that of a snake. Theo,  who was crouched on the ground had to dart back as the yuxa’s tail-stinger arced down at him. 

Together they both backed away from the yuxa as they tried to figure out how to attack it. The yuxa sensing their vulnerability darted forward, lighting fast, the head snapped at Liam while the tail sought to curl around Theo. Liam dodged and scored his claws down the lion head. Theo backed away, twisting and jumping to evade the flexible tail. The stinger went for his head and he grabbed it to stop himself from being impaled in the face. The yuxa took the opportunity to yank its tail towards itself and wrapped Theo securely in its not so gentle embrace. 

Liam found himself watching  scene from anaconda. He darted forward ducking under the yuxa’s head, evading it’s arms and slashed at its underbelly in the hope that it would be softer. No such luck there. 

He rolled to his feet and lunged back at the creature who twisted sinuously to avoid it. Theo who had one arm free, was busily working on doing something while he was being crushed to death. Liam knew he had to get him out of there or he’d die. He bounced off a nearby dumpster, flipped and landed on the back of the yuxa. The whole creature rippled trying to tear him off but Liam grabbed a handful of the yuxa’s mane and scrabbled at it’s face, trying to reach an eye. The scales here were softer and they gave under Liam’s claws but he didn’t actually break skin. The yuxa reached back and ripped open long tears in his back but he kept at it though, until the yuxa was forced to drop to the ground and roll. Liam held on for the first few rolls but eventually the yuxa literally whip-lashed itself hard on the ground and Liam found himself being thrown into the air. 

He landed hard, broke his forearm and cracked a rib. He snapped back his arm and then the yuxa screamed and twisted to see where it had Theo wrapped up. Something silver gleamed on the floor and Liam realised that the chimera had ripped a scale off of the yuxa and was now digging his claws into the the sensitive flesh of the yuxa. 

Liam took advantage of the distraction to leap at the yuxa again. It turned out to be a good move because he  was pretty sure he prevented Theo’s head from being bitten off. The yuxa whipped its head and tossed Liam again and this time it face him, inhaled and let out a burst of flame. 

Shit!

Liam dived to the side  and the yuxa shot another flame at him. He ran, bounced off the chain link fence separating the club from it’s parking lot and made lunge at the yuxa. He got hit with a stream of fire to the chest and crashed into the fence hard. 

Before he could recover, gunshots sounded and he looked up blearily to see Farrell, wide eyed but gun hand steady. A second later Parrish impacted withe yuxa. It breathed fire on him and Parrish just went through the gout of flame, triggering his own fire. His claws scored through the yuxa’s scales and it roared and spasmed, flicking Theo at poor Farell and using its stinger at Parrish. Parrish dodged the stinger and attacked furiously, but the yuxa whipped its tail underneath his feet and then picked him up and tossed him hard against the wall of the club. 

The hellhound was on his feet in a second but the yuxa was already making a break for it, whipping it’s tail and landing a bone breaking blow on Liam as it rushed past him. 

Parrish darted after it, but the yuxa evaded him, ducked around a car and then, with a quick twist of it’s powerful body, heaved a really expensive mercedes at the deputy. 

By the time Liam had hobbled to his feet, hand on his healing shoulder and collarbone, the yuxa was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me how it was!! 
> 
> Have a nice day/night!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spearfinger anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back!!! Hey you guys! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Liam and Theo made their way home because they had only said they were going to study, not spend the night at Mason’s and also Liam had an ingrained desire not to leave his parents alone home with George. 

They went through the window instead of the front door which had Liam’s mom raising an inquiring eyebrow but it was less suspicious than it might have been since that had been Theo’s only mode of entrance until a few days ago.But it was also necessary to hide their club-appropriate clothes which were currently singed, and ripped in places.  

They showered to get rid of the club scents still stuck on their skin and then made their way down to the living room where Liam’s mom was working and George was watching TV. 

Theo lounged in a couch plucking at his guitar, head bent over the instrument, but Liam could tell that he was really thinking. Liam himself, had his school books in his lap, still fighting up with the geography assignment that was threatening to defeat him. 

At some point in time George tried to goad Theo but the chimera flicked his eyes at him and George promptly shut up which was the appropriate response. Any sane person would run far, far away from that look because the person giving it was clearly not sane. It was a look that was filled with ice and death and no inhibitions about visiting both on anybody. 

Liam spared a passing thought that it was the first time in George's life that he had done something smart and returned to his homework. But he couldn’t concentrate. His mind kept turning the night's events over in his mind. The sheriff was trying to find where the yuxa had been staying all this time but that would take time in itself. On the other hand, there was the spearfinger to try and stop. Theo’s fingers plucked delicately across the strings and Liam could tell he was pissed about the night’s results. Liam didn’t blame him. He wasn’t exactly crazy about the nights results himself.

 

* * *

 

“Okay,” said Mason. “Give me something to do because I was bored out of my mind and candy crush cannot solve everything.”

The sheriff gave the teenager a look. 

“Mason, it is one in the morning. You have school in the morning. Go to sleep.”

Mason shook his head. “No. I am literally on the equivalent of a coffee high because of boredom. Give me something.”

The sheriff rolled his eyes and then remembered what Agent McCall had said. “There’s been more cases about the spearfinger. They never connected them because they were across state lines and several years apart.”

“Did they send the reports?” asked Mason, eyes lighting up. The sheriff made a mental note to stop Stiles from rubbing off on them. He loved his son but good grief, he would like to have his office for himself sometimes. 

“Yeah,” he said rubbing at his face. “I’ve got the electronic files here. He scanned them and sent them.”

Mason quickly sat down at the sheriff’s computer and began clicking through files. There was a pause and then he looked up. “Uh, do you want to go through them together?”

The sheriff’s mouth twitches and then he says, “Sure, why not. Why don’t you read and I make the time line?”

“Great yeah,” Mason said. The sheriff uncaps a sharpie and sets to work on his whiteboard. 

* * *

 

Parrish finds them both passed out in the office in the morning. When he knocks on the glass door they both startle awake and the Sheriff flicks the sharpie he had in his hand at the poor deputy. The sharpie hits Parrish right in the forehead and Mason gives an approving look at the marksmanship. Parrish blinks, looks down at the sharpie and then says to the Sheriff,

“Uh, I think your shift is over sir.”

The sheriff groans and shakes his head. “Not yet. But I’ll go home and freshen up. You too Mason.”

Mason yawns and nods. He grabs his stuff, snaps a picture of the whiteboard and tells Parrish, “You have a sharpie mark on your head.”

Parrish rubs at his forehead, remembers it’s sharpie and sighs. “Go to school Mason.”

* * *

 

“So what do we do now?” Corey asked Liam as they got ready for lacrosse practice. “I mean, will it leave Stacy-anne alone?”

“Probably not,” said Liam. “Mason said that it’s difficult to get people who are compatible right? So he probably won;t stop trying.”

“So…”

“So the sheriff had deputy Farrel watching her the rest of last night. Argent is watching her this morning until she comes to school.”

“And then?” asked Corey.

“And then she’s all yours,” said Liam. He clapped Corey on the shoulder and left the locker room leaving the chimera behind him looking bemused.

* * *

 

“I think she knows I’ve been following her,” Corey groaned at lunch. 

“How?” asked Liam, “You’ve been invisible.”

“I know,” said Corey, “I don't know how. But if you stare at somebody hard enough, they kinda know.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” said Liam. “So long as we keep the yuxa away from her.”

“Please tell me you’re taking a shift,” said orey. Liam winced. 

“After last night? No.Theo is taking a shift. If she sees me now I might get in trouble for harassment, and that's not something I want on file.”

Corey sighed. 

Just then Mason dropped down at their table. He appeared to be deep in thought. Corey and Liam glanced at each other and then Liam said tentatively, “Mason?”

Mason didn’t reply. 

“Mason!”

Mason jumped. “What?!” 

“Are you okay?” asked Liam. 

“Yeah, you were kinda zoned out,” said Corey. 

“Sorry,” said Mason, “The sheriff and I were going through the file for the spearfinger last night. I’m just trying to sort through the information now.”

“Got anything?” Liam asked. 

“I don't know,” said Mason. “Something about it is bothering me but I can’t figure out what.”

“You’ll figure it out,” said Liam confidently, “You always do.” Corey nodded in agreement. 

Mason gave them a quick smile and returned to thinking deep thoughts. 

* * *

 

Theo glanced at them as he moved off behind Stacy-ann's car. Liam nodded in return and then he and Mason headed off to the Sheriff's station because Mason wanted to go over the files and wanted fresh eyes to go over them with. Corey was staying back to finish the group project with his group. 

“So,” said Mason, as he was driving towards the sheriff station, “The problem is that I can’t seem to find anything that connects any of the victims together.”

“Not like we did with the dullahan,” said Liam. 

“Exactly,” said Mason. “There doesn’t seem anything that shows how the spearfinger is choosing her victims.”

“Which leads us to a problem because then we can’t predict who she might hurt next.”

“Exactly,” said Mason again. “And that leaves us with more bodies.”

“She’s killed two people already,” said Laim, “Maybe she’ll leave now.”

“Or maybe she won’t,” said Mason. “Look most preternatural leaves when the authorities come too close to the truth. But if the authorities already are in the know, like our authorities, then why leave? It’s not any more dangerous than any place that’s looking for her. Less even because she doesn’t have to hide what she is.”

“But our pack is here,” pointed out Liam. 

“True,” said Mason, “But that didn’t seem to deter her. And we have a nemanton. We don't know what effect, if any, that has.” 

Liam sighed. “Yeah. You’re right. Let’s see if we can find anything to tie the victims together. There has to be something.”

* * *

 

They parked in the sheriff station and walked into the sheriff's office to find him staring at the timeline he had made earlier, with Mason. 

“Hey boys,” he said.

“Hey Sheriff Stilinski,” said Liam. “Any luck?”

“That that I’ve found,” said the Sheriff. “Connections are few and far between. Nothing solid.”

“There has to be something,” said Mason, “Accessibility to victims?”

“Not all of the victims were in easy to kill places. They were either snatched from their homes or taken from somewhere else.”

“Is there anybody we can talk to” asked Liam. “Maybe they’ll tell us something about our victims that we didn’t know before.”

“Like with the dullahan,” Mason nodded. He turned to the sheriff.

The sheriff quickly shuffled through his papers and found the files for the two spearfinger victims. 

“Um, the first woman, Hilda Cranes, lived alone. She moved here from LA actually. No family in the area.”

“Friends?” asked Liam. 

“None here,” said the sheriff. “We asked around her workplace. All her friends were still in LA. She didn’t seem to have made any new ones here apparently.”

“What about the second guy?” asked Liam.

“Um, Jerry Tales. He has a visiting grandmother here at the moment,” said the Sheriff. “We talked to her but she’d only been here for two days before this happened. She wasn’t staying with him. She was in a motel and went to bed early. She might be by his house now though. She was starting to clear it up.”

“What’s the address?” asked Liam, “Maybe she noticed if he was acting strangely. Melissa and Corey said that this guy had a hole in his heart. Maybe she noticed if her was weaker, slower, something. ”

“Alright, fine,” said the sheriff. He gave him the address but said, “Take Parrish with you. She’ll probably talk to the cops better than a teenager.”

Liam nodded and dashed out to get Parrish. The hellhound listened to him and then picked up his keys. 

“Well,” he said, “Let’s go if we want to catch her by her grandson’s place.”

* * *

  
  


The ride over to Jerry Tales’ house was uneventful. They parked outside the gate and walked in. Liam’s eats told him someone was inside, moving things around and he assumed it was the grandmother packing up Jerry’s things to send to his parents or give away to goodwill. Parrish knocked on the door and a throaty old voice called out.

“I’m coming. GIve me a minute!”

Liam took the time to look around the house. It appeared sort of sad and not just because it’s owner was gone. The place was a little run-down and a little dull. There didn’t seem to have much life in the place at all. Jerry hadn’t been a person who cared much what his front yard looked like. In fact he didn’t seemed to have cared about the outside on the whole. 

The door creaked opened and an old lady, slender but full of the life, Jerry’s house seemed to miss, said, “Yes? How can I help you officer?”

“Hi ma’am,” said Parrish. “I’m deputy Parrish with the sheriff's office. I know we already talked to you but do you mind answering some more questions? We’re trying to rule out some options.”

“Oh my, “ said the old lady. “I don’t know what you think I can do to help but I’ll try. Come in, come in. Don’t mind the mess. Oh my poor boy jerry. He was such a slob in real life. Now I’d given anything for him to throw towel in the wrong place.” She wiped away tears from slate grey eyes as she lead them to the living room. 

The place was indeed a mess, compounded by her packing away of things. But the couches were clean and free of debris. Parrish and Liam sat on one couch and the old woman took a comfortable looking armchair. 

“Alright dears,” she said, “What questions do you have for me. I’ll try to help you as I can.”

* * *

  
  


“There must be something!” Mason said frustrated. “Theo said it himself last time: serial killers develop an MO. If you kill for that long, there’s got to be something you learn to like and you would subconsciously gravitate towards that person.”

The sheriff sighed also feeling frustrated. “Okay fine. How about we leave the victims for now. How about we go back to the spearfinger itself. You said that in the old days they only hunted a certain type of people right?”

“They used to hunt people who had wandered off alone,” said Mason, “Easy prey. That’s why the indians went out in pairs and didn't used to trust someone who had returned after being alone for long.”

“Why wouldn’t they trust them?” asked the Sheriff, frowning. 

“Oh because the spearfinger would take the shape of the person they killed and go back to the camp and kill everyone there. Sometimes they would take the shape of family members of the young children they killed.”

“So, it attacked easy prey,” said the sheriff frowning.  “But it’s not doing that now. He frowned looking at their timeline and suddenly his eyes lit up. “Not easy prey,” he said. He looked at Mason. “You said this thing attacked people who were by themselves right? Who were alone?”

“Yeah said Mason, frowning. “What about it?”

“That’s the link,” said the Sheriff. “The spearfinger doesn’t attack people who are physically alone anymore. It attacks loners. People without friends. People who spent a lot of time by themselves. Jerry Tales worked at home and barely got out. Hilda Cranes didn’t make friends easily. She kept to herself by all accounts of her co-workers. Her only friends were those she made in LA. It’s nearly the same for all the previou victims.” The Sheriff quickly spread out the flesh of the victims that they had printed out. 

“Loners,” said Mason, “People who had been alone. That’s...an interesting way to look at it. But it fits.”

“Wait a minute,” said the sheriff pausing. “Did you just say the spearfinger took the shape of the person it killed?”

“Yeah,” said Mason, “But doing that here wouldn't make any sense because we have the dead bodies.” 

“Exactly,” said the Sheriff and Mason realized that the Sheriff had made a Stiles-like leap of connection where A and B had been completely ignored to get to C. 

“So it wouldn't take the bodies of its victims,” said Mason. “It would take the shape of the family members.”

“Jerry Tales’ grandmother,” said the Sheriff. 

Mason had his phone out and was dialing Liam even before he had finished talking. 

* * *

  
  


Parrish had just finished talking to Jerry Tales’ grandmother who had been frustratingly unhelpful but only because the old lady really didn’t know anything. She was trying though and Liam had soon realized that Parrish handled her better than he did so he left most of the interview to him. He mostly concentrated on figuring out if she was lying or not which she didn’t but her heart trembled a bit on occasion. Actually it happened enough that Liam was starting to think it was just because she was old. In fact he might have dismissed it altogether but there was something niggling at him throughout the entire interview.  

When they were about to leave Parrish said, “My condolences for your loss.”

And Jerry's grandmother replied. “Thank you. I loved him very much.”  And her heart skipped a beat. A lie. 

Liam frowned. She had just lied about loving her grandson. Why lie about it? Lots of family members didn’t like each other. It was no secret that family always had their little spats. Just look at George and his family. So why lie? Why the tears at the start? Then his nose realized something else. The old woman didn’t have a scent. That’s what had been bothering him. 

“Liam!” called Parrish from the door. Liam realized that he’d been standing at starting at the old woman. 

“Can I help you with something dearie?” she asked and there was wicked, bright intelligence to those grey eyes. 

“Yeah,” said Liam, “You can leave Beacon Hills the hell alone.”

Behind him he felt Parrish come alert and the old woman cackled. Her skin paled and then darkened to grey.

“Oh little wolf,” she said, her voice now heavy and distorted, “You are no match for me.” Liam watched as the first finger on her right hand grew to a long sharp spear. The dress she was wearing, shimmered and greyed too, folding and fitting around her like armour. 

Just then Liam's phone rang. He ignored it and then the radio on Parrish’s shoulder crackled. 

“Liam, Parrish get out of there!”

“Too late,” Parrish answered. 

“Too late,” Liam agreed. He flicked out his claws and roared. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think!!
> 
> In other news I am a nanowrimo winner!!! I managed to write 51000 words and finished my novel! I'm so happy and proud of myself! It's the first time I've ever done it! YaY!!!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spearfinger fight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy!!

“Is there a way to stop this thing?” the Sheriff asked Mason frantically.

“Um, um,” said Mason. “Yes! I mean there's a legend that the indians killed the spearfinger by severing the wrist of her hand. And it worked because the spearfinger kept her heart in her fist. When they severed the fist, they killed her.”

“Is that going to work now?” asked the Sheriff. 

“How should I know!” Mason yelped, feeling utterly helpless. 

“Well it’s worth a try,” said the Sheriff. He pulled out his phone and dialed someone.

“Argent!” he barked when the person answered. “You have a gun that can blast through stone?”

* * *

  
  


Liam crashed into Jerry Tales’ couch. The couch slid back and Liam tumbled to the floor. Parrish, lit up in hellfire was engaged with the spearfinger who turned out to be pretty agile. She slipped under Parrish’s swipe and slashed her finger across his abdomen. Parrish rocked back, preventing her from disemboweling him but still collected a nasty slice across his stomach. Liam hit her from the other side, giving Parrish those few moments he needed to heal. 

He racked his claws against her but it was like clawing at stone, he left scratch marks but it didn’t seem to harm her in anyway. The spearfinger, stabbed Liam in the gut and and flung him. He tumbled out the doorway and found himself in the front yard.He blinked for a few moments, spat out blood and then scrambled up and dived back into the fight. 

Parish was inside, dodging the spearfinger’s lethal weapon, putting his CQC into use, treating her as if she were a knife wielder. 

Liam spared a moment to wish that he’d had a chance to practice against Kira, it would have been helpful right about now. Spearfinger she might be but the whole finger was sharp and she used it like a sword as well. The spearfinger blocked one of Parrish’s kicks with a leg and then kicked him. A thunderous boom sounded when she connected with him and Parrish flew through the back wall. 

Liam ducked and used his shoulders to knock her off balance while her leg was still extended.She pitched forward and Liam scrambled after her. He caught her in a hold but she was furiously strong and her stone armour made her strangely difficult to hold on to. 

Still he was managing to hold her down when three ravens darted inside the house and began to attack him. He cried out and ducked his head as the ravens seemed intent on going for his eyes. A sharp thwip of sound came and then one of the ravens fell, impaled by an arrow. Two more arrows sounded and the next two birds fell but by this time, the spearfinger had gotten enough wiggle room to escape Liam’s hold. 

She swiped at Liam, knocking him back and opening a sizable cut on his chest and then darted at Corey. The chimera took the opportunity to slide forward and kick her legs out from under her. She pitched forward again and Corey came up on one knee, re-armed his crossbow and took aim at the back of her head. He fired and the arrow shattered upon impact. 

“Shit!” Corey said. He rolled out the way as the spear finger back kicked at him and came to his feet next to Liam. They stood in a corner together as they tried to plan their next move. 

Parrish finally came back through the hole he had made after having been kicked and roared at her. 

The spearfinger laughed as she stood. She clenched her left hand to match her clenched fist on the right and used her obscenely long finger to point at them. “Do you really think you can kill me?” she cackled. “You can barely even scratch me.”

“Well we have time to try,” Corey said, “because you can’t escape.”

The spearfinger frowned. “What?”

“Mountain ash,” explained Corey. “I circled the whole place with it before I came in.”

The spearfinger snarled at them, her visage turning weirdly feral. Her teeth lengthened, her eyes narrowed and became a dark blue-purple and her lips darkened, becoming stained in a dark red colour like organ blood. The bones in her face rearranged themselves into something sharper, older, wilder. A hue of power seemed to surround her, the scratches on her stone armour sealed over and she stood taller. 

“You will not trap me!” she snarled. “You cannot kill me! I am more powerful than you will ever be!”

“But everybody has a weakness,” said a new voice. Chris Argent leveled a shotgun blast at the closed fist of the spearfinger. The force of the blast sent her stumbling back. She righted herself but Corey sent another arrow straight at her closed fist. The spearfinger jerked. 

“Her hand,” said Argent coming into the room. “ She holds it closed like that because she holds her heart in there.”

“What?!” said Liam, then decided that the best course of action wasn’t to think about it too much. 

Parrish roared and launched himself at the spearfinger. She swiped at him with the spear but he twisted away, and managed to grab hold of her left arm and locked it down. Liam took the cue and dived for the other hand, the one apparently holding the spearfinger’s heart along with the spear itself. She swung her partially closed fist with enough strength to break stone. 

But werewolves are strong enough to break stone too. He took the blow on the side of his face, felt the bones crunch and break, felt the spear cutting deep into the side of his face and kept going. Like Parrish, he used to force of the blow to spin himself, moving around her retracting arm to end up behind her. He grabbed her arm and stretched it out. 

“Shoot!” he roared. 

Argent shot. The shotgun blast hit her fist and the richeet buried itself into Liam. Liam turned his head to the side to protect his  eyes. Another arrow impacted into the spearfinger’s fist. She screamed, loud and high-pitched as she struggled to escape but Parrish and Liam held her fast. Parish even had one of his legs hooked around hers to prevent her from wiggling out of their hold. Argent chambered another round and shot. Once again Liam collected the extra buckshot, his tee-shirt blooming red from multiple areas. Hot stabs of pain followed. Corey shot in the interim and this time, Liam thought he heard something crack. Argent blasted again and again and again, angling as best he could not to hit Liam while concentrating the max force on the spearfinger’s fist. Liam grit his teeth in his broken jaw and held out through the screaming pain of being perforated. Corey shot arrow after arrow in those moments when Argent was reloading, both of them moving like a well oiled machine of destruction. 

Finally, finally, the repeated impacts began to have an effect. The spearfinger began to weaken as the force to her heart was too much. She slumped in their hold but Argent and Corey were relentless, continuing until the spearfinger was unconscious. At Corey’s last arrow, there was a loud crack and then the spearfinger’s stone armour fell away from her in a scattering of gray dust and her hand opened limply to reveal a strangely shaped lump of obsidian. Argent surged forward and snatched it, putting it away in his pocket. Liam and Parrish lowered the spearfinger to the ground and then Liam’s leg’s gave out and he fell hard. 

“Liam!” said Corey. “Shit! Shit!”

Liam blinked dazely at him. “What?” he slurred. 

“You’re shot!” Corey told him. 

“Oh,” said Liam. He passed out. 

* * *

 

When he woke up it was to the familiar scent and sounds of the animal clinic. Corey and Mason hovered worriedly over him. 

“Dude,” said Mason. “Are you alright?” 

Liam blinked and then sat up. He groaned. Mason and Corey quickly steadied him. 

“Oh good,’ said Deaton placidly walking into the room. “You’re awake. You gave everyone quite a scare.”

“What?” said Liam and then memory returned. “Oh.” He blinked. “The spearfinger!”

“Is on her way to Eichen,” said Deaton. “The sheriff and Argent are taking her there along with the good deputy.”

“Oh,” said Liam again. He slumped for a moment and then straightened up and swung his legs of the side of the table. The new skin pulled a bit but it didn’t really hurt. He hopped off and looked around for his t-shirt. 

“It’s dead,” Mason said. His friend shrugged out of his hoodie and offered it to Liam. Liam shrugged on the hoodie and asked Deaton.

“Does Eichen has a cell that can hold her?” 

Deaton nodded. “Yes, actually. I will pass later today and ensure that it is adequate but Parrish and Argent ought to be able to tell.”

Liam nodded. “Stacy-anne?” he asked. 

“Farrel is watching her now,” Corey answered. “Theo is on his way here.”

“Okay,” said Liam. 

Deaton handed him a kidney dish. Inside a lot of shotgun pellets rolled around. Liam blinked. 

“That’s a lot,” he said. 

“You shout put them on a chain,” Mason joked but Liam could hear the strain in his friend's voice. He suddenly realised that he must have looked awful when he was hurt. 

He grinned at Mason reassuringly and said, “It really wasn’t that bad. I was more concentrating on holding the spearfinger down than feeling the pain.”

“Well I can tell you I felt them for you,” Mason said, shuddering slightly at the memory. 

“He helped Deaton pick the pellets out of you,” Corey told Liam. “I just sort of held you down because you kept waking up halfway.”

Liam grimaced. “Sorry guys.”

Mason gave a small, half-hysterical laugh. “What are friends for?”

* * *

  
  


“You look like shit,” Theo told him.

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically, slumping into his friend's truck. “Did the yuxa try anything?”

Theo shook his head. “No,” he said. 

“Yay,” Liam said, half-heartedly. 

His phone vibrated. He pulled it out. 

 

SS to EVERYONE in BH: SF-lady captured and in Echien. JP and I going to try to figure out how to make this legal.  

CA: LD cell is secure. Sorry about the buckshot.

LD: It’s okay. I told you to shoot. Glad to know cell is secure. 

MM: No more exploding stomach ladies came in. I’m proud of you all for taking down the SF.

 

Liam blearily sent a smiley face in response and then promptly fell back asleep on his way home. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, filler-ish but I hope you all enjoy anyway. You all can thank my sister for me getting this chapter out because she was like, "Did you write anymore? A yuxa needs to be dealt with."

“Wake up,” Theo told him. Liam blinked awake and realised they were idling outside of his house.

“Oh,” he said. He sat up and scrubbed at his face while Theo turned off the engine. They both hopped out and headed over to the house.

“Hey!” Liam called when entering the house.

“Hi!” replied his mom. “I hope you boys don't mind pizza this evening because I’ve got a huge deadline to work for.”

“We never mind pizza,” Theo replied. Liam stuck his head into the living room where his mom had lots and lots of papers spread out everywhere and what looked like a seating chart in front of her.

“Wow,” he said. His mom laughed.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she assured him.

“If you say so,” Liam said doubtfully. “I’m going up to shower.”

“Okay. Pizza should be here in about ten minutes.”

“Cool,” said Liam. He and Theo headed upstairs intent on showering. Liam borrowed his parent’s shower again while Theo used his. It was only when he was halfway through his shower that he remembered Grandpa George. Huh. Where was he? Liam thought about it for a few seconds and then shrugged. He’d ask his mom. He returned his attention to scrubbing out all the dried blood on his skin.

By the time they both had finished showering the pizza had arrived. Theo went to cellect it while Liam set the table.

He discovered George in the kitchen. The old man grinned at him but it didn’t feel very friendly.

“And how’s my favourite grandson today?” he asked.

“I’m your only grandson,” Liam retorted.

“No need to be rude,” George told him still half-smirking. “I was just asking how your day was.”

Liam spared a moment to wonder what George would do if he told him that he had fought of an ancient, preternatural killer who was made of stone, and ate livers and then spent the rest of his evening getting shotgun pellets picked out of him.

“I fought an ancient, preternatural killer made of stone and then spent the rest of my evening getting shotgun pellets picked out of me,” Liam said.

From the front door he heard Theo choke. It took all his will-power not to burst out laughing. Grandpa George frowned at him.

“Is that a videogame?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Liam, “It’s a videogame, an online gaming community actually. But we won so yay!”

“Uh-huh,” said Grandpa George who clearly wasn’t into video games. Theo brought in the stack of pizza’s and though his face was neutral his eyes were sparkling with suppressed laughter.

“Dinner!” he announced.

“Mom!” Liam called. “Dinner!”

“That’s lovely dear!” his mom called back in a preoccupied voice. Liam, Theo and George all blinked at each other in confusion.

“I meant come to dinner!” Liam called.

“That’s great!” she said in the same voice. Liam sighed and put a hand to his forehead.

“I’ll carry some to her,” he said.

“Yeah...,” said Theo.

* * *

 

 

They eat dinner in relative silence and then head upstairs. Liam pulls out his phone to see that he’s gotten a message from the Sheriff.

 

_SS to EVERYONE in BH: Am going to tell Stacy-Ann about the yuxa being a suspect in a murder case. It should keep her away from him if he approaches her again._

_Liam: Okay. That’s good._

_CA: The yuxa may still capture her though, if she resists so we should keep the guard on her._

_SS: Agreed._

* * *

 

The next morning the Sheriff comes to the school and Ms. Martin calls Stacy-ann discreetly to the office. She comes in frowning in confusion which only deepens when she sees the Sheriff there.

“Uh, what’s this about?”

“Please have a seat. Don’t worry you’re not in trouble.”

Stacy-Ann sits on the edge of the seat and the sheriff slides the sketch of the yuxa across to her.

“Do you know this man?”

Stacy-ann blinks at the picture. “Um, yes. I uh, I met him at a club.”

“Did he ever contact you again?” asks the sheriff.

“Um,yeah. He wanted to meet later today,” says Stacy-ann. “What’s this about?”

“We pulled your face and his off the camera in the club. We believe he’s a suspect in a murder,” says the sheriff. “For your safety, I would like to ask you to stay away from him until he’s either arrested or cleared.”

“Oh my gosh!” exclaims Stacy-Ann, paling.

“Now don’t panic,” the sheriff soothes. “Just take basic precautions. Stay with a group all the time. I’ll also have a deputy watching over you discreetly since the murder, whoever he is, seems to be fixated on his victims.”

Stacy-ann covered her mouth with her hands and nodded.

“Now you should be safe at school. As for this evening, just don’t show up. Can you give me the number of the phone he’s using?” Stacy-Ann nods and does so. The Sheriff get up and places a hand on the girls shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get all this sorted out soon and you;ll be back to your life pretty quickly.”

Stacy-ann nodded and the Sheriff left, letting Natalie do the rest in calming the agitated girl.

 

_SS: Got the yuxa’s phone number. Going to try and trace it._

_Liam: Keep us updated._

 

A few hours later:

 

_SS: Phone is a burner. No GPS. We called but he hung up as soon as he realized it wasn’t Stacy-Ann._

_MH: We’re looking for him the old fashioned way then?_

_SS: Unfortunately._

* * *

 

Liam spent a basically uneventful day at school and a highly eventful day at lacrosse practice and came home to a tension filled house. His dad was home as was Theo and Grandpa George, which equaled a recipe for disaster.

Liam took one look at the scene and then went into disaster mitigation mode. He dumped Theo with helping his mom make the salad, distracted his dad with the sports channel and settled down to have a somewhat cordial discussion with Grandpa George about  music, which turned into a debate about modern music vs older music during which Grandpa George managed to slide in some racist slurs and Liam managed to slide in some retorts about racist idiots.

In short he kept the peace throughout dinner. After dinner though, things got a tad bit exciting. Liam and Theo were both helping Marcy clear the table so at a point when Theo was out of the dining room Grandpa George said suddenly to Marcy:

“You should keep an eye on that boy,” he said nodding to the kitchen where Theo was. "He’s dangerous.” Clearly Theo’s serial-killer look the other day had made an impression on George.

“Oh don’t you know?” said Marcy lightly, “Our Theo is a criminal. Sorry ex-criminal.”

While George stares Theo sweeps into the room and says,  “No still a criminal. I like to keep my options open.”

“Ahh,” Says Marcy while Dr. Geyer looks like he wants to laugh. Liam feels like joining him.

“A criminal?” says George.

“Oh yes,” says Macy blithely, “He was serving community service for a bit there.”

George narrows his eyes at Theo who is staring at him innocently. “Community service,” repeats George. “I bet what they got you on was nothing to what you did.”

“I plead the fifth,” Theo says lightly, eyes lighting up in both genuine amusement and threat.

Grandpa George sees the look and goes for a less dangerous target. He turns to Dr. Geyer and snaps, “You let this happen? You put my daughter at risk from this, this hoodlum? My daughter and my grandchild?! Oh you play at being a family man but you don’t really care don’t you? I bet you have a deal with this boy so you can pick up the life insurance when he kills my daughter!”

Several things happen at once. Liam dives for Theo, Dr. Geyer gets up and slams his hands on the table and Macy throws her glass of water on George. Liam spends the next few moments wrestling Theo to the ground while Dr. Geyer says very calmly:

“George, if you ever say anything like that again in my house I will kick you out. I don’t care how much Macy owes you, she doesn’t deserve this. Now please go upstairs, you have upset my wife and my sons and I will not let you upset them further.”

George must have apparently opened his mouth to say something when Macy says, “Go upstairs dad. I don’t want to see you right now.”

The chair scrapes back and then the sound of George’s crunches click on the tiles as he leaves the dining room. Liam is still struggling to hold Theo down when he suddenly goes slack and calm. Liam tentatively looks at him and is chilled to the bone. The person who is looking back at him is quite capable of cold-blooded murder.

“Beta,” Liam says warningly to him under his breath and Theo snaps out of it to stare at him in shock.

Just then Dr. Geyer rounds the table and says, “I’m sorry you had to hear that Theo. But don’t go for him. He isn’t worth it.” He held out his hand to the chimera and Theo takes it hesitantly and is pulled to his feet.

“Well,” says Macy, “I want ice-cream. Do you boys want to see if we can find an ice-cream parlour open?”

Liam looks at Theo, who is still on edge and thinks it’s probably a good idea to get him out of hearing range of George’s heartbeat.

“Sure,” he says. “Ice-cream sounds great.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this one!!! Thanks to everyone who has commented and given kudos!!!

Scott calls him when they come back from getting ice-cream. Theo was curled up in wolf form in the floor next to Liam’s bed but he perked up his ears when Scott, says, “Hey Liam.”

“Hey Scott. What’s up?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you,” Scott laughed. “You haven’t called in a while. I just wanted to check up on you guys. Anything happening?”

“Uh...quite a bit actually but we dealt with one problem and we’re dealing with the other,” Liam tells him. With that he launches into a  description of the spearfinger and the yuxa and what they’re doing to deal with the yuxa.”

“Seriously,” Scott complains goodnaturedly, “Nobody told me anything before this?”

“Uh…” said Laim. 

Scott laughs. “Liam it’s fine. I’m just glad everyone’s handling it. But are you sure you’re okay? You sound a little stressed.”

“My racist grandfather is staying with us,” said Liam.

“Ooo,” said Scott. “That...must be interesting.”

“No kidding,” Liam sighs. “I think me and Theo have both tried to kill him once each and my mom threw a glass of water on him.”

He can practically hear Scott blink on the other end of the phone. “Whoa. How’s your temper?”

“I’m keeping it,” Liam says. “It’s not easy. But...I’m better.”

“I’m glad,” his alpha tells him. “I’ll talk to Stiles and see if can dig up anything about yuxa’s that Mason might have missed. Maybe Lydia too.”   
“Alright but don’t bother them if you don’t have too,” said Liam. “You all are in college now. You kinda need to focus your brainpower on something else.”

“Lydia at least, has enough brainpower to spare,” said Scott and Liam had to concede the point.

They talk for a while more and then Scott has to go. Liam comes out of the call feeling strangely settled. He hadn’t realised that being out of contact would have affected him but it seems that it has. One of the rare few downsides of pack, he supposes, and of being someone’s beta and of being in charge.

Theo puts his head back down on his paws and Liam switches of the lamp. Tomorrow is the day of his lacrosse match and he needs all the rest he can get.

* * *

 

The morning dawns bright and clear and Liam is awakened by Theo getting into the shower. He has actually woken up before his alarm so he groans, hits the off button and grumbles his way out of bed because he knows he won’t go back to sleep. He sleepily searches out clothes and then lacrosse equipment and then dives into the shower when Theo comes out.  

The chimera is just pulling out of the driveway when he gets out and Liam, packs his bag, makes sure he has all of his lacrosse equipment and his assignments and then heads down to the kitchen where he smears two bagels with butter and carries them out to his car. He’ll eat them in school.

* * *

 

School is normal. Everyone is buzzing about the lacrosse match that evening and Coach works them over well in practice but not too hard to tire them out. The sheriff keeps Liam appraised of their serce for the yuxa which isn’t going very well. They can’t seem to find a trace of him. 

Liam and the others keep an eye on Stacy-anne but she seems to be heeding the Sheriff's warning. He also catches sight of a deputy, unobtrusively keeping watch on the school for Stacy-anne’s safety. All too soon, the last bell is ringing and Liam dashes to the locker room to change. Corey joins him on the way and says that Mason went to the bleachers to save spaces for Liam’s mom and also Mrs. McCall, Theo and Argent. 

Both boys change, suffer through coach’s speech and then head out to the field. The Mary Tree’s Private kids are there and happily they don't look like giants Instead they actually look like Liam’s team in size and Liam feels relieved. 

Liam glances across the bleachers as he runs out on the field and sees his mom, who waves to him, Theo who is sitting next to his mom, Mrs. McCall and Argent. He also notices, Parrish who is sitting apart from the others but his eyes flick to the person who is sitting one row above him. Stacy-anne is surrounded by a gaggle of friends and Parrish is ensuring that no one will reach her unless they go through him. 

The match starts and Liam is first to scrimmage. He gets the ball and runs off making his way through the opposing team. The team isn’t bad but their inexperience shows. Liam makes it through and scores the first goal. Diaz scores the next and Corey stops the next side from scoring. 

Liam scores a second goal and that’s when things get more serious. One of his team throws the ball to him but before he can catch it, it’s snatched out of the air by one of Mary Tree’s students. The guy shoots Liam a daring grin and heads for their goal. Corey stands ready as the Mary Tree student threads through Liam’s team with far more ease than he should. Liam dives after him but before he can reach him, another Mary Tree’s student plows into him. Corey stops the goal from being scored but it’s a near thing. 

Liam on the other hand is struggling to stand. He does so while the whistle blows to call foul and the Mary Tree’s student walks away with a smirk. Liam takes a spot near goal and Corey calls out:

“You okay?”

“I don’t know what he is,” Liam calls back lowly, “But he’s not human.” The student hadn’t smelled human and he was really strong. Liam’s ribs had needed healing.

“I don’t think the other is either,” Corey says. 

Liam thinks back to the sudden ease in which the other student had threaded through his team and had to concede that perhaps Corey was right.

“Step it up only if they continue to do so,” Liam says and then the whistle is blowing and the game has restarted. 

In the end they win but only by a decent margin. The Mary Tree’s team is pretty good and with experience, they’ll be pretty formidable. The other two preternaturals, yes they both were, had not continued to use their advantages once Liam and Corey had set themselves up against them with their own advantages. 

Liam went over to speak with his mom who wanted to congratulate him and Corey. Theo had simply said, “Good match,” and then had focused his attention on the two preternatural students, both of whom started to squirm lightly under the chimera’s laser gaze. Liam whacked him lightly to tell him to stop and managed to stop his mom from kissing his cheek in front of everyone. Corey however hadn’t gotten away in time and had been soundly smacked by Macy much to everyone’s amusement. 

Liam finally extradited himself to go and change and was heading to the locker room when he suddenly wondered where Stacy-anne was. Come to think of it, where was Argent and Parrish? He turned and headed to the car park because it was most likely where Stacy-anne would be going and came upon Parrish and Argent both standing and staring very threateningly at someone. 

When Liam looked at who it was he stiffened to see the yuxa standing on the far end of the car park grinning at them widely. Then a car came between them and when it passed the Yuxa was gone. 

“He didn’t come near Stacy-anne,” Parrish said. “She’s over there. I have to escort her back home.” 

“Can we track him?” asked Liam. “Not if he went into a car,” said Argent, “And if he’s smart he would have.”

Liam still heads off to track the yuxa anyway but Argent was right. The yuxa’s trail disappeared into the scent of exhaust fumes. He growls lightly and then remembers he has to shower and dashed back to the locker room. 

* * *

 

Stacy-anne and two of her friends are getting a ride home from another friend, called Alisha. The other two girls are dropped home first and then Alisha begins the drive to Stacy-anne’s house. 

“So,” says Alisha when they were alone, shooting Stacy-anne a playful but oddly triumphant smile. “Remember that guy you told us you met in the club, the hot one? Your delectable russian?” 

Stacy-ann shifts uncomfortably. “Uh, yeah. What about him?”

“I met him today!” Alisha sings triumphantly. 

“What!” says Stacy-ann in sudden fear. Alisha interprets her exclamation as one of surprise and anger.

“When I went to the bathroom,” said Alisha. “He was looking for you but I told him you were occupied.” She still has a sly smirk on her face and Stacy-anne with sudden terror says:

“You didn’t have sex with him did you?”

“I asked him if he didn’t think I was more exciting,” said Alisha with a toss of her head. “He said yes.” She smirked at Stacy-ann again. “He was really good.”

“Shit,” says Stacy-anne and continues before Alisha can say anything else. “Alisha I stopped seeing him because the Sheriff thinks he’s a suspect in a murder case. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know if I was allowed to say anything to anyone else.”

The car swerves and then Alisha gets it back under control. 

“What?” she says, her voice shaky. 

“Yeah, I’m, I’m actually under surveillance,” Stacy-anne says. “The car behind us is a deputy.”

“What?” says Alisha again. She looks white. 

“Okay you, you have to tell the sheriff,” says Stacy-anne.

“No!” says Alisha. “No and tell everyone I slept with a possible murderer?”

“Alisha,” says Stacy-anne, “They say he could get fixated on people. What if he got fixated on you now?”

“If he got fixated on me, then he would have killed me then or kidnapped me. He could have done it pretty easily,” said Alisha. “Everyone was at the match. So I doubt he is. He’s probably still fixated on you since he didn’t get you.”

“But you don’t know that,” argues Stacy-anne.

“Look!” Alisha shouts. “Look I just can’t deal with this right now okay?” she continues in a softer tone. “Just don’t tell anyone. I, I’ll see how I feel about this in the morning okay? Just….give me the night.” 

“Okay,” says Stacy-anne uncertainly. “Okay, fine but be careful.”

“Yeah,” nods Alisha. She pulls up by Stacy-anne’s house and Stacy-anne gets out. 

“Will you be okay to drive home?” she asks Alisha. 

“Yes,” says Alisha. She takes a deep breath and cranks up the radio, “I’ll be fine.”

“Call me when you reach at home okay?” says Stacy-anne and Alisha nods and then pulls off. 

Stacy-anne waves at the deputy who had followed her home and watches as the car parks a little way down the road, in order to keep an unobtrusive watch on her house. She gets a text from Alisha saying that she had arrived home and reminding Stacy-anne not to say anything. Stacy-anne replies back with an ‘ok.’ and drops off to sleep. 

* * *

 

She is awoken by the ringing of her phone. She gets up, blinks blearily and stares at the screen. Alisha’s names flashes across and Stacy hits the answer button. 

“Alisha?” she says voice dry and heavy with sleep. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know. Half-three?” her voice is wild and panicky. 

“What is it?” says Stacy-ann her brain waking up in response to the tone of the other girl. 

“Something’s wrong,” says Alisha. “Did they tell you if this guy did anything to the people he slept with?”

“What why?”

Alisha tries to tell her but can’t seem to get the words out her mouth. “Just come over!” she pleads. “Please.”

“Okay, okay,” says Stacy-ann wide awake now. “Hold on I’m coming.” She hangs up, dresses and then heads over to the deputy who is still sitting patiently in his car. 

“Hi,” she says, “One of my friends is ill and I need to go over to her. Can you drive me?”

“Uh,” says the deputy. “It’s not safe for you to do that.”

“Either you drive me or I’m walking,” Stacy-anne says, flatly. The deputy, Parrish, she reads on his name tag hesitates and then nods. 

“Fine get in but I have to call it in.”

“Okay,” she says. 

The deputy calls it in and then drives her over to Alisha’s house. She hops out and then calls Alisha. 

“I’m here,” she says, “How do I get in?”

There is a small balcony on the side of the house and Alisha opens the balcony’s doors and drops down a rope ladder. 

“Really?” says Stacy-anne but begins to climb. Alisha helps her over the railing and then disappears quickly inside. Stacy-anne follows into her bedroom. 

“Okay,” she says, “What’s happening?”

Alisha stands with her back to her and then slowly throws of her bathrobe and turns to face Stacy-anne. 

“This,” she says. Stacy-anne blinks. 

“Uh.. you’re bloated?” she asks. “Is it that time of the month?”

“No,” says Alisha. “And I’ve been throwing up. My cousin, visited last week and she left a pregnancy test stip behind cuase she and her husband are trying to get pregnant and I used it and...and…” She retrives the test stip and holds it out to Stacy-annae who stares at the double-lines in disbelief. 

“You’re pregnant?!” she blurts. “But that can’t be. I mean, you would know from before right? If that’s a baby bumb….”

“Then I would be a few months pregnant,” said Alisha voice shaking. “And I know I wasn’t pregnant before.”

“Okay,” said Stacy-anne also feeling shaky. “Okay. We can deal with this.” She looks at Alisha. “It’s going to be okay Ally.” She hugs the other girl who begins to sob softly. “It’s going to be okay.”

* * *

  
  


The last thing Liam expects is to get call at nearly four in the morning from Stacy-anne. 

“Liam,” she says when he answers. In the background he hears another voice go, “Liam. Liam Dunbar?”

Stacy-ann ignores the other person and says, “You, you were friends with McCall right? I mean, I was there in the library and Mrs. Martian said it was some Teenage something disorder and I can’t remember it all right but I know it wasn’t some disorder. But you ran with McCall right, you, you know about the strange stuff? That’s why you were trying to keep me away from that guy in the club?”

Liam is shocked into silence but an impatient move from Theo who is also now awake has him stuttering out, “Y-Yeah. Yeah I know. What happened. Did he hurt you?”

“No,” she said. She took a deep breath and then continued. “He slept with a friend of mine at the lacrosse match and, I know it sounds crazy but she’s pregnant now.”

Liam freezes. “Okay,” he says, “I believe you. I’m coming over now. What’s the address and is any deputies there with you?”

“Yeah. A Parrish.” 

Liam breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay. Good. Wait for us.”

“Okay,” says Stacy-anne and rattles off the address. 

Liam and Theo dresses as fast as their extra speed can allow it and jump out Liam’s window. Theo drives while Liam embarks on making some calls and texting in between. 

“Mrs. McCall,” he says when she answers. 

“Liam,” she groans, “It’s my day off.”

“No it isn’t,”  he says, “The yuxa impregnated one of Stacy-anne’s friends last night,” said Liam. “We need an OBGYN doctor. Do you know anyone we can ask?”

“Shit,” she says. “Yss. Yes I think I know someone. I’ll call her now.” She hangs up and Liam calls Mason and then Corey. Mason otps to go straight to the hospital to help Melissa set up a place and Corey says he’ll meet them at Alisha’s house. 

 

Liam to EVERYONE in BH: yuxa has stuck again. Girl pregnant. Not Stacy-anne, a friend of hers. Probably another compatible person. 

CA: Will meet you at the hospital. 

SS: So will I. Get the girls there as fast as possible. I’d tell Parrish to do it but they mightn’t trust him.

Liam: I know, that’s why I’m going.

 

He has time to call Deaton and send him to the hospital before they pull up at Alisha’s house. They park and head over to the balcony. The balcony doors open and a rope ladder in thrown down. Liam blinks but scales it without comment. Theo mutters something about Rapunzel but thankfully, not loudly.  They make it into Alisha’s bedroom and then stare at the frightened girls inside. 

“Come on,” Liam says. “We need you get you to the hospital.”

“What?!” says Alisha. “No! My mom is super conservative, she can’t hear about this!” 

“Look we’ll do our best but you could die,” Liam says while Theo winces at his lack of tact. 

“The way this guy kills,” says Theo, “is through the babies. The mothers don’t usually survive the birthing. We need to get that baby out of you before it kills you.”

“What?!” says Alisha faintly. 

“Look,” said Liam, “Just come with us to the hospital and let the doctor explain it to you okay?”

“The doctors know about this?”

“One of them will,” Theo says. “Will you come?”

There is hesitation and then Stacy-ann takes Alisha’s hand and says, “It can’t hurt.”

“Okay,” nods Alisha. “Okay.”

“Uh the deputy who brought me,” began Stacy-Anne.

“Knows,” said Liam. “That’s why the Sheriff has him assigned to you tonight.”

“Wait the Sheriff knows about this weird stuff?” Stacy-anne asks. 

“Stiles the Sheriff's son is best friends with Scott McCall,” Liam says pointedly. 

“Oh of course,” she murmurs. “I’m an idiot.”

“You panicked,” said Theo. “That’s normal. Come on let’s go.”

The all head down the ladder, Theo going first and then Alisha. Stacy-anne follows and then Liam. They head over to Parrish’s car.

“Hospital?” he says opening the doors.

“Yup,” said Liam helping Alisha inside.”

“Liam,” Theo’s voice is suddenly taut with tension. Liam looks up to see a car parking by Alisha’s house. The yuxa steps out. Both girls gasp. 

“Parrish, get them to the hospital,” Liam says

“I’m better to face him,” Parrish objects. 

“Which is why you need to be there if he gets past us. Go, now.” Parrish hesitates and then spins the car and heads off with the girls. 

* * *

 

“Well, well,” says the yuxa in his accent. “You two again. Your sheriff is clever, patrolling the roads so viciously that I was delayed in reaching here to get her.”

“You won’t get her!” Liam says. 

The yuxa snarls. “She carries what is mine!” 

Theo flicks out his claws. “You know it takes two to make a baby. It isn’t just yours.”

The yuxa snarls again and his form begins to distort. Liam shifts and dives at him in that moment when he is still shifting. He manages to land a hit on the tail before the iron hard scales roll over them and then he’s flying from a hit by said tail. 

Theo flips into the air claws raking across the stinger itself. The bulbous sac is punctured and venom leaks out but the stinger itself is still in working condition and Theo has to roll away before it punctures him. 

Liam slides under its body, raking his claws at the yuxa’s neck but he jerks his head back far enough to prevent it from being a killing blow. The tail whips and splatters venom on Liam who has to shield his eyes before they get hit with the venom. Theo darts in to attack the yuxa’s head, the only place not covered by it’s indestructible scales when the yuxa turns and breaths a spurt of fire at him. Theo is forced to slide on his knees to avoid being barbecued and Liam uses the distraction to leap on the yuxa’s head and to start raking at it. He doesn’t stay there long. The yuxa’s tali comes up and stabs Liam in the back and flings him off. Liam goes flying and when he tries to get up he collapses again. The venom is burning through his wound. 

He struggled to his feet in time to see Theo duck the tail but not the head which savagely bites into his shoulder. 

He roars and then an arrow comes out of nowhere and to Liam’s surprise punctures the yuxa’s scales. The yuxa roars in surprise and pain and drops Theo. Another arrow flies out from the apparent ether and smacks straight into the yuxa again. The yuxa dives for it’s invisible opponent only to be impaled by another arrow. 

Deciding to fight another day, the yuxa instead dived for his car and drives off, almost running Theo over in the process. The chimera gets up from where he threw himself of to the side and looks at Liam who’s vision wobbles and then he falls again. 

“Liam!” Corey’s voice reaches him and then the other chimera is there. “Here. I brought this just in case.”

Before Liam can ask what it is, a needle is plunged into his skin and then the nine herbs are burning through his system.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give me your thoughts!!!!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final fight!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

When Liam awoke, they were almost to the hospital.

“Uh,” He groaned sitting up.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said Theo.

“That thing burns,” he groans. But when he poked himself hesitantly in the back, the wound and the poison was gone.

“Sorry,” said Corey. “But you were in bad shape.”

“It’s okay,” said Liam waving away the alopoliy. “What did you shoot him with?”

“Mountain ash tipped arrows,” said Corey.

“Nice,” said Liam.

“There are some advantages to being a chimera,” Corey says grinning.

Just then they pull up the hospital and Liam and the others hop out of Theo’s truck. Liam, fumbles for his phone, calls Mason and asks where they are. Mason gives him directions and they all head to the room that has been set up incognito. They find it pretty easily and walk straight into an argument.

Melissa McCall and a female doctor are facing each other. The doctor has her arms crossed and is glaring daggers at Melissa.

“Uh,” said Liam, “Hi.”

The doctor turns her sharp gaze to them and frowns deeply at Liam. “Of course,” she says hostilely. Liam blinks.

“This is Dr. Pamela,” says Melissa. “She’s an OB-GYN. She knows about you all so I thought she could help us.”

“Is she going to help us?” asked Theo, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know why I should,” says Dr. Pamela archly. “Your kind has killed so many people here and then you just cover it all up.”

“Because you’re not just helping us,” Corey speaks up. “You’re helping Alisha who is a perfectly normal girl who’s been put into circumstances she has no idea how to deal with. If you don’t help her, she is going to die.”

Dr. Pamela purses her lips and then nods jerkily. “Fine. But I need help.”

“I’ll help and so will Deaton,” says Melissa. “If you know anyone else who we can trust then fine call them.”

Dr. Pamela stands and thinks for a moment and then sighs. “No one reliable. Now someone tell me what’s going on.”

Melissa gives a succinct report of what’s going on with Alisha and the doctor frowns.

“So he’ll try to kidnap her? But then he has to find her first.”

“No,” says Theo. “There’s only one place we would have carried her. He’ll be coming here. He’ll need some time to recover, we hurt him today, but he’ll be back for her.”

“Why is this thing doing this?” asked the doctor. Everyone shrugged.

“We haven’t managed to figure that one out,” Liam admitted.

“Okay,” said the doctor, “I’ll do it but only if this girl gives her consent. I won’t operate on her against her will.”

“Of course,” said Melissa.

They all move down the short hallway and through the second set of double door into a hastily set up operation theater. Stacy-Anne and Alisha are there, along with Mason and Parrish. Liam blinks as he realises Alisha's tummy is slightly larger already/.

The doctor walks over to Alisha and says very gently, “Hi my name is Dr. Pamela Erickson.”

“Alisha,” says Alisha.

“Nice to meet you Alisha. Now I understand we have some pretty unusual happenings going on. Do you mind if I take a look at you?”

Alisha nods hesitantly and the doctor takes her temperature, her blood pressure and even her sugar on a small machine. Then she brings over another small machine and preses the tiny scope end to Alisha’s stomach.

“This is a fetal doppler,” she says. “I’m using it to see if I find a heartbeat.”

After a few moments numbers come up on the screen the doctor is holding. Her face tightens and then she says. “I’m getting a heartbeat. It’s a little fast for a typical baby. But you are pregnant.”

Alisha nods miserably and Stacy-anne hugs her around the shoulders.

“So,” continues Dr. Pamela. “You have two options. Either you abort the child now…”

“No!” snaps Alisha and then looks surprised at her own outburst. “No,” she continues softer. “Look I know what you all have said but I, I don’t know it for sure okay? I can’t live with myself if I let you kill this baby and it’s a normal baby. I, I just can’t. What’s my second option?”

“You wait until it’s old enough to survive on its own and then we do a c-section to get it out before it comes out on it’s own. The second option is far more risky I have to warn you.”

Alisha swallows hard and then said, “I don’t care. We’ll do the second one.”

“Alright,” said Dr. Pamela, “Lets start prepping you and get some fluids in you okay? Your blood sugar was low. I think the baby is pulling a lot from you in order to grow this fast.” With that she turns and fires of a list of instructions at Melissa who hurries away to comply. The dostor shoots them all a warning look and the boys scatter. Stacy-anne stays behind though and so does Mason.

* * *

 

Deaton shows up with a bagful of most likely suspicious things, nods to the boys who are sitting in the corridor and enters the room. The sheriff appears a few moments later and says to Liam and Theo:

“I just had to deal with several calls about two monstrous dog boys fighting a snake-lion.”

Liam and Theo both wince.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Liam pointed out.

“I know that but it doesn’t exactly makes things easier. Now tell me what happened.”

They all explain and then finish up with Alisha’s decision about her baby.

“So let me get this straight,” said the Sheriff, “They’re going to wait until they baby can survive, using typical survival rates for babies before they take it. Okay. The yuxa will need some time to heal so we aren’t likely to see him for the next few hours.”

“If we calculate it,” Mason says, “Either they can take the baby at the seven motn mark, which will be reached around half three this evening I think. But if Alisha opts for eight months, and I think she will, then she’ll reach that stage around half six- seven.”

“And since the yuxa would prefer to come in the dark, he’ll probably come then,” said Theo.

The sheriff sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “We have some planning to do.”

“Where’s Argent?” asked Corey suddenly. “Didn’t he say he was meeting us here?”

“He’s keeping watch,” said the Sheriff. “We should call him in though. He has more experience with defending against preternatural creatures.”

The others agree and the sheriff calls Argent to come over. Parrish goes to take Argent’s place and Mason starts swiping through the one report that Agent McCall had sent about the yuxa.

* * *

 

After all the excitement of the early morning the rest of the day is kinda boring. Liam and the others plan what they could do to protect Alisha and Stacy-anne and then kind of doze to fill up on the sleep they had lost.

Theo and Corey took a trip to the animal clinic to get some stuff and then had to detour to the grocery store because Alisha suddenly wound up with some odd cravings.

Liam periodically checked up on the girls and was astonished each time to see how much larger Alisha’s stomach had grown. On his last visit, if he listened carefully he could hear the tiny heartbeat fluttering in her abdomen and had had a sudden epiphany about why Alisha couldn’t bear to not take the chance that her child was going to come out somewhat normal. What must it feel like to have life growing inside you? To know it’s there and depending on you? His estimation of mothers, already high, went up a couple notches.

His estimation of Alisha also went up some. This situation must be terrifying to her but she was dealing with it exceptionally well. He had no doubt that should the baby turn out normal, despite it’s quick growth rate she would take care of it with all the love and attention as a normal child and that, that was real strength.

* * *

 

By the time five o’clock rolled around, Liam and the others were already getting jittery. Alisha was pretty round and the baby was moving really harshly inside of her. Dr. Pamela was concerned they’d have to take the child even earlier than anticipated. Alisha protested but even her protests were weak. Whatever was in her was really strong. Still Dr. Pamela stayed the c-section.

Finally Alisha was put on the operating table, even though she was just sitting there for now while everyone went into preparation mode. The sheriff and Farrell who’d come on board, after requesting to help were put on front of the closest entrance to the room they were using. Their orders were to simply slow down the yuxa, not to try and stop him. It was far to dangerous for squishy humans to face him. No nine herbs would save them.

The space between the door and the operating room was guarded by Parrish. Between Parris and the operating theatre was another set of doors, (to his left)  which led to short corridor, where Laim, Corey, Theo and Argent (nobody had dared to claim he was a squishy human and anyway he wasn’t) waited. After them was the last set of doors which led into the actual theater.  

 

* * *

 

Dr. Pamela, Stacy-anne and Alisha all watched bemused as Mason spread a square of mountain ash around the edges of the room.

“What is that?” asked the doctor.

“Mountain ash,” said Mason. “It should keep him from getting in but we’ve had experience with things that could break through eventually which is why they’re out there trying to slow him down. Also we don’t have an unlimited supply of the stuff and if we just put it across doorways he could just go through the walls.”

The others blinked and then the Doctor said, “Huh.”

“Yeah,” said Mason as he finished complete the ‘circle’ of mountain ash. He set the last remaining dregs on a chair off to the side and dusted off his hands. “I wish I could just figure out this thing’s motivation though. It has to have something more. I know it does. But all I have is this last file from 100 years ago.”

Liam and Theo who were listening in to the conversation both looked at each other because both of them wanted to know what motivated this yuxa as well.

“Wait,” said Liam suddenly. “Aren’t yuxa’s supposed to be formed from snakes who had reached to 100 years?”

“Yes but Deaton said they weren’t snakes, but preternatural creatures.”

“But the last article was 100 years ago,” said Liam. “There must be some significance of the number.” He paused and then called out. “Hey Mason, what was the date fo that last attack with the yuxa?”

Mason rattled off the date and then they all froze as they realised that it was the same date as today only a 100 years forward.

“A yuxa,” said Liam, “is a snake that lived for a hundred years. According to mythology. But, but what if it isn’t that?”

“What if,” said Theo, “it’s a preternatural creature that...”

“Moves from body to body,” Corey finished.

“Every hundred years,” says Argent.

“So that’s why,” breathes Mason. “It’s not a baby, not exactly. It’s, it’s his next incarnation.”

“That’s why he couldn’t move to the deformed ones,” said Deaton. “He’d need a perfect body.”

“So he killed the deformed babies and keeps impregnating people until he gets a perfect body,” says Melissa. “That’s...wow.”

“That’s awful,” said Alisha flatly. She’s pale.

“Oh Alisha honey I’m so sorry,” says Melissa and Dr. Pamela gives her a dirty look and goes over to console the girl.

* * *

 

Half an hour passes and then the radio the Sheriff left in the room begins to crackle. “Look it’s getting pretty dark out here and I’m getting a bad feeling. Alisha, Doc, I know you don’t want too but we might have to start that procedure very soon.”

The doc grimaces and looks to Alisha who swallows hard. “Not yet,” she says, faintly. “Please.”

“Alright,” said Dr. Pamela,  “but let’s start to prep okay?”

Alisha nods and they quickly have her lying down and then all involved in the surgery quickly scrub up and begin inserting IV’s and preparing the tools they’d need. Stacy-anne stands next to Alisha and holds the other girl’s hand tightly for moral support.

At around six-fifteen, Dr. Pamela nods to Alisha and said, “I think it’s time we take that baby now. It’s getting really strong and I’m getting antsy. I’d like to have that baby out of you before that thing comes.”

Alisha hesitates but nods. “Alright,”she said.

Since they don’t have a neurologist on board to do an epidural, they’re going with general anesthetic, putting Alisha out completely.

Melissa takes Stacy-anne and carries her over to her bag and hands her, her stun baton.

“If anything happens to all those people out there, you stand in front of your friend and shock the hell out of anything that comes through that door okay?”

Stacy-anne stares at her with wide eyes and nods.

“Good,” said Melissa and went back over to help.

Stacy-anne positions herself in front of the bed but out of the way and Mason positions himself in front of her with his batons.

“Are those really going to do anything?” she asked.

“They have mountain ash strips down the sides along with silver,” he replied. “It may not pack a punch but what it does hit will hurt.”

The procedure starts and both Mason and Stacy-anne glance back once and then, scarred for life, don’t look again.

* * *

 

They get ten minutes of quiet before the radio crackles. “He’s here,” the Sheriff says.

Liam and Theo hears the radio and signals to the others. They all get up from where they’d been sitting on the floor and prepare himself to fight.

“He’s here,” Argent calls out to Parrish who nods and then Argent bars their set of doors and pulls out his guns. Liam and Theo flick out their claws and Corey readies his crossbow.

* * *

 

The Sheriff and Farrell watch the tall man stride towards them. They can see he’s still injured but he’s also healed and he has some sort of paste over the open wounds that remain. Clearly he doesn’t have healing the way werewolves do and the Sheriff is very glad to learn this.

“Get out my way,” the yuxa says calmly “and I might let you live.”

“Leave now,” said Sheriff Stilinski, “and I might let you live. The girl is under the protection of Scott McCall’s pack”

“But the true alpha is not here is he?” snears the yuxa. “And even if he were ,he would not be able to stop me from taking what is mine.”

“He’s not here but his pack is,” said the Sheriff.

“All he has left behind are children and old men,” snarled the yuxa.

“Aren’t you like a hundred years old?” asked Farrel. “You don’t exactly have room to talk.”

Apparently that was the last straw. The yuxa snarled at them and silver scales flowed over his body and he dived at them. They opened fire at him, attempting to hit him in the head but he was really flexible and he was shedding his human guise. The Sheriff grazed him over the eyes and Farrel across the top of his head and then the yuxa’s tail was whipping at them and they were forced to dive aside. When they both came up to a crouch the yuxa had burst through the doors and entered the corridor.

“Damnit!” said Farrel. “I was hoping we’d slow him down more.”

“Well let’s hope Parrish does better than us,” said Stilinski.

* * *

 

Parrish was standing ready in the corridor when the yuxa came through the door on the far end of the corridor. It roared at him and charged and he triggered his flames, roared back and charged himself. The yuxa hit him with a blast of flame and slide on the ground and swung its neck/body under his feet. Parrish jumped, landed and grabbed the yuxa behind its head and then heaved and tossed the yuxa back out the doors it had burst through a moment earlier. He heard a few scattered gunshots, probably the Sheriff and deputy, no doubt surprised by the sudden reappearance of the yuxa.

Then the yuxa was through the doors again and with a powerful thrust of its tail launched at him.

* * *

 

Liam and the others in the final corridor watched though the little plastic square in the door as a hellhound and a yuxa went flying past. The fire alarms were now belated screaming and the sprinklers were pouring out furiously. Unfortunately since there were two creatures who were fire based, all of the sprinklers’ output was just being turned into steam which fogged up the outside. There were a lot of rumors, some really painful thumps and several fire-related incidents. There was a crunch, the sound of scales being torn from flesh and then teeth were sinking into flesh. Parrish roared and ripped himself free of the yuxa. Liam heard his claws being used again and again until the yuxa finally managed to get enough leverage to heave him off. Liam and the others watched a hellhound go flying in the other direction and then the yuxa was in front of their doors.

It reared back, it’s tail came up and then slammed into the door with a tremendous crash. The doors fly open and Argent shoots the thing in the head. It rears back enough so that that the bullet just cuts a really terrible furrow on the top of it’s head. Liam and Theo goes into full transformation and Corey lets an arrow fly.

Liam and Theo both head up the walls of the corridor, before pushing off and landing simultaneous blows on the yuxa’s head. The tail flicks and attempts to stab them as they land but Argent shoots at the tail. The yuxa goes for Argent and Corey let’s loose another arrow which impales through its tail.

Liam and Theo swipe at the yuxa with their claws and then it breathes fire over both of them. They both are literally pushed back by the fire and then roll over and over on the ground to put out the flames. Argent gets another shot in, this one going through the snout of the yuxa but not killing him before the yuxa heaves his powerful body and slams Argent against the wall where he lies dazed and almost unconscious. Corey lets loose arrow after arrow but finally abandons his crossbow and, using a page out of Liam’s book, runs up the side of the wall and then pushes of, pulling his chain whip free as he does so. He lands on the yuxa’s head and loops the chain around its neck and pulls just as the yuxa breathes fire again. Liam and Theo are spared and they both hit the yuxa with their shoulders attempting to push him out of the corridor.

Corey almost gets impaled with the stinger but before it can hit him, Parrish grabs the yuxa’s tail and pulls it back. Together they half drag the yuxa back out the door.

Corey flips of the yuxa, stabs the shirken end of his chain whip into a gash made by Parrish’s claws and then duck under the yuxa’s tail and tugs, effectively trying to tie it down.

The chain whip hold for a few seconds while Liam and Theo claws furiously at the yuxa’s head and the open gashes left by Parrish claws before the chain whip snaps. Corey staggers back, Parrish gets hit by the released chain and the yuxa shifts part way back to human, leaving his tail out.

Liam blinks, not knowing the yuxa could have half-shift like that and then the tail arches down, stabs Theo in the chest and throws him at the final set of doors. If it was a normal werewolf, they would have hit the barrier of mountain ash, but Theo was a chimera. As it was, he flew through the doors, hit Mason and then Stacy-anne and broke the mountain ash barrier quite spectacularly.

The tail whips back and slaps Liam and sends him reeling straight into Corey and leaving them both with numerous broken bones. Then he whirls picks up one of Argent’s guns, uses his tail to whip at Parrish and distract him for one vital second and then empties the clip into Parrish who was diving at him. The hellhound goes down.

Theo disentangles himself from Mason and Stacy-anne who had briefly shocked all three of them with the stun baton and dives at the yuxa only for the yuxa to shift fully and blast him with flame. The chimera screams and goes down.

Mason grabs Stacy-anne, groggy from her unexpected tasering and says, “Pick up the mountain ash and give it to Dr. Deaton!”

And then limping and shaky from being hit with the stun baton, went to face the yuxa. He ducked the first gout of flame, manages to land one hit and then gets sent flying. He gets up in time to hear a baby’s cry-roar.

The yuxa whips its head around to where the Dr. Pamela was holding a baby yuxa in her hands and looking she she didn’t know what to do with it. Stacy-Anne presses a scant handful of mountain ash in Deatons hands and then does what amounts to a full body lunge towards the yuxa’s tail where it was resting on the ground and stabs the stun baton at it. The yuxa writhes in pain as Deaton throws the mountain ash up in the air. It falls in an extremely thin but perfect circle around the bed.

The yuxa finally knocks Stacy-anne’s stun baton away and she rolls away frantically from it. It still jerks from the shocks but Mason can see now that there’s something wrong with it. It’s scales and flesh are starting to fall of it’s frame.

Liam and the others come up behind it but stop as they notice what’s happening. The yuxa squeals as it jerkily slides forward the flesh starting to melt off it’s bones, it’s teeth falling out of its head.

It’s practically disintegrating before their eyes but still it crawls forward it’s shriveling eyes focused hungrily on the baby. And then the body collapses but the yuxa’s spirit is still somehow crawling forward out of its desiccated remains, towards the baby. They all watch in horror until it hits the mountain ash barrier.

Liam watches as the yuxa’s spirit form hit the barrier again and again and again, more desperately each time. The barrier is thin but it holds out for the duration of the barrage. Finally the yuxa’s spirit thumps faintly against the barrier for a last time and dissipates. They all blink at where it used to be and then Dr. Pamela cries out as the baby goes limp from where she and Melissa was holding it down to prevent it from hurting them. She quickly reaches for a stethoscope and presses it to its chest but then slowly shakes her head. The baby was gone. Without the yuxa’s spirit to fuel it, it hadn't survived either.

There was a beat of silence and then Dr. Pamela jumps back into action to close back up Alisha. The others all flee the scene, taking the corpse of the yuxa with them and a badly burned Theo. Stacy-anne chooses to stay behind still but Mason comes with them this time.

* * *

 

Liam meets the Sheriff and Farrel outside both of whom heaves sighs of relief at the sight of the yuxa’s corpse. Then the Sheriff pauses. “What are we going to do with that?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how was it?


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath. Also exit Grandpa George.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached the end of Circle of Life. Thanks to all those who have kept me company on this ride!! I do hope this final chapter is satisfactory for you guys!

They end up loading the yuxa’s corpse in Theo’s truck and drive off while the chimera is still getting over the effects of the nine herbs. Argent gets an ice pack and some bandages, Mason gets the same and Liam gets treated for his minor burns which still hurt terribly. 

Finally Dr. Pamela comes out the room and  says that Alisha is in stable condition and looks to have no complications. They all heave a sigh of relief and then the Doctor takes a deep breath and says, “Do any of you need treatment?”

She clearly doesn’t want to help them but it is equally clear that she is not going to let that stop her. Liam feels a sudden surge of respect for the woman. They all shake their heads and the doctor nods and turns away but Liam scrambles up and drops into stride next to her. 

“Thank you,” he says. 

“I didn’t do it for you,” she said stiffly. 

“I know,” he said, “You did it for Alisha and because it was the right thing to do. But still thank you. You’re pretty decent.”

Her eyes are surprised and then she just nods and disappears back through the doors to Alisha.

* * *

  
  


Mason drops him and Theo home since the Sheriff is using Theo’s truck to carry the yuxa’s corpse. They sneak in through the window because they’re both covered in blood, ashes, poison and in Liam’s case, dead yuxa goop and have a furious game of rock,paper, scissors to see who gets the bathroom first. 

Liam wins and dives into the bathroom and scrubs heartily at his skin. He’s quick though because he does not want his parents or by some chance, George to open the bedroom door and find Theo looking like he just murdered someone and tried to barbecue himself afterwards. 

Theo hops into the bathroom as soon as Liam is out and Liam uses the time to tame his hair. His phone beeps and he picks it up to find a message waiting for him.

 

SS to EVERYONE in BH: LD, TR’s truck at the AC. Already cleaned.

Liam: On behalf of TR, thanks.

MM: A. should be waking up in an hour or so. No further complications have cropped up.

Liam: That’s good.

CB: Yes that’s good. 

MH: Yay. I’m going to sleep like the dead now though. Wake me if you guys need anything.

 

Liam snorts affectionately at his best friend and then opens up a new text message.

 

Liam to Scott: We have defeated the yuxa. You can tell whoever was researching to stop.

Scott to Liam: Really? Great. Anyone hurt?

Liam to Scott: Minor injuries. 9 herbs are awesome. Gonna catch some sleep now. I’ll give you the details later. 

Scott to Liam: Sure. Keep safe. 

Liam sets his phone to alarm in 45 minutes and drops off to sleep almost instantly.  

* * *

 

One of the downsides to being a werewolf is that you can never say you missed your phone alarm. Laim got up in time to save his phone from being killed by Theo.

“Why?!” Theo groaned. 

“Gonna see Alisha when she gets up,” Liam says groggily scrubbing at his face. The chimera flops back onto the ground and falls asleep instantly again. Liam shuffles off downstairs, greets his mom who asked him if he had any dinner.

“Yeah,’” he yawns. “I ate at Mason’s” He makes a mental note to have Mason corroborate this story, grabs the orange juice out of the fridge, drinks all of it and then shuffles of to his car.

“Where are you going?” asked his mom, staring after him. 

“To see a friend. I’ll be back soon.” He waves, gets in his car and does the slowest possible drive to the hospital. 

He pulls up to the hospital only marginally more awake than he was before and was surprised when Corey’s car pulls up next to his. The other chimera doesn’t look any more awake than Liam but he offers a small smile.

“Hey,” says Corey.

“Hey,” says Liam. 

They lock their cars and then head over to Alisha’s room. They find Stacy-anne outside in the main corridor sipping coffee and Argent doing the same. Stacy-anne looks like she showered in one of the hospital staff showers because she’s dressed in a pair of scrubs. 

“Hey,” she says tirely. 

“Hey, you okay?” Liam asks her. 

She nods. “Sore and I’ve never been tased before but okay. I’m just tired. She should be waking up soon.”

“I know,” said Liam.He stifles a yawn and Argent takes pity on him and passes him his cup of coffee. Liam takes a gulp, passes the cup to Corey who also gratefully drinks some before passing it back to Argent. 

They stand out there for around five minutes before Melissa pokes her head out and says, “She’s coherent now.”

Stacy-anne and Argent swallow the rest of their coffee hastily and follow Liam and Corey inside. Alisha looks pale, Liam thinks and he can see the strain around her eyes. Stacy-anne pushes past him and goes to her friend.

“Stace?” she asks. 

“Hey Ally,” says Stacy-anne and Argent goes a little stiff. Liam remembers belatedly that Ally had been a nickname for Allison. 

“What...What happened?”

“The bad guy’s gone,” said Stacy-anne.

“My baby?” Stacy-anne winces. 

“When uh, he didn’t get to transfer to the baby, the baby uh, didn’t make it.”

Alisha closes her eyes and takes a sobbing breath. “I need to see,” she says afterwards. 

“Alisha,” says Dr. Pamela.

“I need to see!” she says. Dr. Pamela winces but lifts Alisha’s bed until she’s somewhat upright and then she and Melissa rolls over the covered table that holds the tiny body of the baby yuxa. Alisha tries to lift the sheet but can’t and Melissa takes it off gently for her. The girl stares at the body of the baby yuxa, reaches out and touches it face and then her face fractures and she bursts into tears. 

Dr. Pamela lowers the bed and Stacy-anne hugs Alisha as best she could. Liam is surprised when Corey goes over to the other side and takes Alisha’s other hand until he remembers Corey’s own grief at not being able to save the he last yuxa baby. The scene is heartbreaking but Liam refuses to leave. 

Finally when Alisha has sobbed most of her grief out he moves forward and places a hand on her bare ankle. He didn’t do this earlier because he didn’t want to rob her of the chance to grieve properly but now that she’d dealt with it some, he pulled her emotional pain from her. Black lines snakes up his arms and he stifled a gasp. 

Dr. Pamela starts forward but is held back by Melissa. They talk in hushed whispers and then the doctor relents. When Laim can take no more he moves his hand and staggers back. Argent catches him and then says softly to Alisha:

“My family has a plot that’s actually empty. If you don’t mind him being buried under someone else’s name, you’re welcome to use it.”

Alisha wipes her tears of her face and nods. “Thank you,” she says.

Corey determines that that’s their cue to leave and ushers them out. They walk to their cars and then Liam just leans dejectedly against his car. 

“Sometimes the aftermath’s the worst thing,” he says. 

Corey leans on the car next to him and presses his shoulder to Liam in a show of support. 

“Yeah,” he says softly. “But I really don’t think we could have done anything to stop this outcome.”

“We could have thought about other people being compatible!” Liam says distressed. 

“Why should we have?” asked Corey. “We already knew the chances of finding compatible people was rare. That’s why the yuxa was focused on Stacy-anne. Finding Alisha was a fluke for him. We couldn’t plan for that.”   
Laim clenched his fist, and wanted to punch something really hard but the only things around was his and Corey’s car and if he destroyed either he was going to get in trouble. He smacked his fist into his other hand instant and breathed harshly until he could control himself again. 

“You’re right,” he breathes after a long while. His shoulders slumped and after an awkward moment Corey gave him a bro hug. Liam just as awkwardly returns it and then they both get in their cars and head of home to get some real sleep.

* * *

 

Stacy-anne doesn’t come to school the next day or the day after that but does turn up on the third day. Alisha of course is still missing and Liam knows that the Sheriff had concocted some story about a sadistic, travelling killer who went around giving people c-sections for no reason to tell her parents. Liam blames Criminal Minds for making that story plausible. 

* * *

 

He, Theo, Corey and Mason end up taking turns to spill the entire story to Scott over skype wherein the alpha winces a lot,  congratulates them and gives them some sage sounding advice.

* * *

 

None of them but for the Sheriff, Argent and Melissa attend the burial of the baby yuxa. It doesn’t quite feel right for them to be there. Dr. Pamela and Stacy-anne does of course attend. Kate Argent’s empty grave is finally being used for something and it gives Alisha a place to go to if she needs to. Dr. Pamela had recommended a really good therapist and Stacy-anne said Alisha was going to her so hopefully sometime in the future she’d be okay. 

* * *

 

Things settle back down over a the next two weeks. Liam fails his geography assignment and so does Corey. Mason passes his but barely. Corey and Theo spent an entire afternoon in  Liam’s living room building  a bridge out of a specific number of cherry stick and rubber bands that could hold a specific amount of weight since Corey’s group had failed to come up with any working ideas. 

Grandpa George had spent the entire evening laughing at them and when Liam’s dad had come downstairs after sleeping off his night shift, had spent the time alternately throwing subtle insults and laughing at the two boys. Theo had confided that it was been a very triumphant moment when they had gotten the bridge to work. Liam didn’t doubt it. 

Things were still strained at his house since Grandpa George had only started making his insults more subtle. More than once Liam had almost knocked George's face in and on one occasion, only Dr. Geyer stepping on his foot under the table, had prevented him. Theo on the other had had retreated to a very cool, clinical manner, as if he was tallying every one of Georges insults. In all honesty Liam should have been more suspicious of Theo’s sudden change in behaviour but he’d been fighting hard to keep his own temper so he hadn't had time to really parse Theo’s. He should have. 

* * *

 

Liam and the other’s were sitting as usual in the tray of Theo’s truck studying after school when Liam’s phone rang. Liam answered it and then said, “Hey mom.”

“Hi, Liam,”said his mom sounding breathless. “I’m just calling to say I won’t be home this evening. George tripped on a rug on top of the stairs and fell and broke his other leg. He called an ambulance and they came and picked him up. I’m heading to the hospital right now.”

“Huh,” said Liam. “Do you need me?”

“No,” said his mom. “But you might have to buy something to eat.”

“Sure. We’ll order pizza,” he said and hung up. Then he started to laugh helplessly. So he wasn’t an extremely good person, sue him. 

“What?” said Mason. 

Through gasps of laughter Liam managed to explain that George had somehow managed to throw himself down their stairs and break his other leg which sent the rest of them into laughter.

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Mason said wiping tears out of his eyes. When they had all laughed their fill they finally managed to settle back down into doing their homework. 

It was halfway through his biology homework when Liam suddenly remembered something very important. His head snapped up and he said in a strange voice:

“We don’t have a rug at the top of the stairs.”

There was a pause and then Liam slowly turned and looked at Theo who had an unrepentant smirk on his face. 

“He could have broken his neck,” Liam hissed.

“Corey was invisible on the stairs to make sure he didn’t,” shrugged Theo.

Mason and Liam’s heads turned slowly to look at Corey who said defensively:

“I like your parents. They’re like, real parents. Not like mine who don’t know where I am half the time and don’t care. Your parents didn’t deserve having to put up with that guy.” Liam blinks then realises that that was Corey, steel and kindness. 

“Did he know it was you?” he asked Theo.

Theo looks affronted at the question. “Of course not. I put a ruffled rug on top of the stairs. He thinks he tripped on it. It just took a little chimera strength to poke him off balance.”

Liam covered his face with his hands and tries to figure out how to feel. In the end he lifts his head and says:

“Like tell me before you do anything like this next time.”

Theo snorts but his shoulders relax and his scent moves away from the hint of anxiousness. 

“Fine,”  he says. 

* * *

 

When he gets home, it’s to find out that George is now confined to the hospital for some time after which he was going to a home fo the convalescent since his mother could not take care of a bed-ridden George. Theo shoots him a look of pure triumph and Liam returns it. All’s wells that ends well with the help of a little chimera intervention. 

* * *

  
  


Scott landed at the airport, rented a car and headed off to MIT to visit Lydia. He wasn’t paying attention to anything in particular but he was accustomed to tailing people himself, a legacy of his friendship with Stiles, so when he kept spotting a dark blue SUV on the highway  that always was at least three cars behind him, no matter what lane he was in, he began to get suspicious. 

When he reached his turn-off, the blue SUV followed him. He continued driving as usual until he got to a busier section of the city and then quickly began to lead whoever it was on a confusing chase, twining his way through roads, and once even pulling up into some corporate garage, until he lost them. He used his GPS to get back on track and then called Lydia on his bluetooth. 

“Hey Lydia is anyone watching you?” he asked.

“I’m the most beautiful girl on campus, duh,” she said. 

Scott huffed with laughter. “No, like I want to kill you watching you.”

“Oh.” There was apuse as she was most likely taking a sneaky look around. “No,” she said after a while. Not that I can see. Or sense. Why?”

“Because someone was following me,” Scott said. “I lost them but I didn’t know if they had eyes on you too.”

“Not yet,” she says, seriously. 

“Okay. Stay safe, I’m almost there.” He hung up and concentrated on driving and soon reach the campus. He got a visitors pass and then parked. Lydia was waiting for him and met him in the parking lot. 

He hugged her tightly and she returned the hug. Then she stiffened and said, “Scott.”

He turned and saw the blue SUV cruising past the main gates. The men inside were staring straight at them but they didn’t do anything, just continued past. 

“Hunters?” she asked. 

“No,” he said, “Typically hunters aren’t so stupid or that visual.”

“Monroe,” Lydia says. 

“Guess she found some new friends,” said Scott. 

Lydia huffs. “Well there’s nothing we can do about that except to warn to the others,” she said. She loops her arm through his and said, “I hear you have to take me on a date?”

Scott groans but laughs good-naturedly, and then two walk off to their Stiles-appointed date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me your thoughts as usual! 
> 
> Have a nice day/night!!

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you all think!!! 
> 
> Have a nice day/night!!


End file.
